Scottish Medicines Consortium approves seven drugs
pharmafile | May 12, 2015 | News story | Sales and Marketing | NHS, SMC, Scottish Medicines Consortium
The Scottish Medicines Consortium has accepted seven new medicines and indications for use on the NHS in Scotland.
Two of these drugs – chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) treatments Arzerra (ofatumumab) from Novartis and Zydelig (idelalisib) from Gilead – were considered under the SMC’s Patient and Clinician Engagement (PACE) programme, which involves patients organisations, health professionals, experts and other interested parties in the drug review process.
This is one of many reforms that the SMC has implemented over the past year. The body says it believes these have contributed to improved decision-making and patient understanding.
“[The PACE process] allows us to apply greater flexibility in our decision-making,” says Professor Jonathan Fox, chairman of the SMC. “It is now a year since we first introduced a range of new processes and the hard work of all those involved in helping to develop them – especially patient groups and clinicians – is beginning to show benefits for patients across Scotland through improved access to effective new medicines.”
Arzerra was acquired from GlaxoSmithKline when Novartis swapped assets with the UK firm in March, shortly after the drug was approved by NICE. It was originally rejected by the pricing watchdog, but accepted after GSK agreed a price cut.
Takeda’s Entyvio (vedolizumab), which in March became the first in a new class of ulcerative colitis treatments approved by NICE, was also approved – with the SMC recommending that patients using it should be reassessed every 12 months to determine whether ongoing treatment is still appropriate.
The body also accepted two type 2 diabetes medicines – Victoza (liraglutide) from Novo Nordisk and Trajenta (linaglipton) from Lilly and Boerhinger Ingelheim, both in combination with insulin. These drugs were previously accepted by the SMC for use in combination with a range of oral medicines for diabetes. Victoza has also recently been approved in the US and Europe in a higher dose, and under the brand name Saxenda, to treat obesity.
The final approvals were for Allergan’s implant eye treatment Ozurdex (dexamethasone) for diabetic macular oedema and Budenofalk (budesonide) from Dr Falk Pharmaceuticals, which treats autoimmune hepatitis in patients without severe liver disease. However, Budenofalk was restricted to use in patients who can’t tolerate the conventional prednisolone.
George Underwood
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