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Nice backs GSK’s lupus drug Benlysta

pharmafile | May 11, 2016 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing |  GSK, NHS, NICE, regulation 

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) has backed GlaxoSmithKline’s (LSE: GSK) Benlysta (belimumab) to treat lupus. 

The regulator has recommended the drug on the condition the NHS England and the company work together to collect further data which addresses uncertainties about the efficacy of the drug. 

The drug, Benlysta received the backing from the US Food and Drug Administration in 2011 for autoantibody-positive systemic lupus erythematosus. However, the UK regulators had held back recommendation saying the therapy did not represent a cost-effective use of resources.

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Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease that can lead to severe, debilitating symptoms, long-term organ damage and premature death. It affects more than 20,000 people in England and Wales, and some patients with advanced disease fail to respond to current therapy. 

Anjali Shukla 

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