National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), the agency that decides whether medicines can be prescribed on the NHS in England and Wales, has already issued draft guidance rejecting tocilizumab, which is marketed as RoActemra, for use by rheumatoid arthritis (RA) sufferers who cannot tolerate existing therapies or no longer respond to them.
But the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) approved the drug for use with another treatment, methotrexate, after trials showed the proportion of patients achieving clinical remission, was six times the number who responded in the same way to methotrexate alone.
Professor Iain McInnes, a rheumatologist at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, said: “This is excellent news for patients in Scotland who suffer from this disabling, lifelong disease. RoActemra works in a completely different way to the existing drugs and will likely help many of those who are not responding to other treatments.”
Ailsa Bosworth, head of the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society, added: “The SMC’s decision provides patients who face a life of pain and potential disability another chance of overcoming their disease. We strongly hope Nice will revise its draft guidance to ensure that people with RA in England and Wales are also able to benefit from this important new treatment.”
RA is thought to affect 35,000 people in Scotland.
