NICE recommends RoActemra for early use in arthritis

pharmafile | October 13, 2011 | News story | Sales and Marketing |  NICE, RoActemra 

NICE has recommended Roche’s drug RoActemra be used at an earlier stage for some arthritis patients.

In draft guidance NICE backed the use of RoActemra (tocilizumab) after treatment with disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs).

This updates its previous guidance (TA198) from last August, which said RoActemra should only be used for patients with RA if there has been an inadequate response to one or more TNF inhibitors, and when Roche’s other RA drug MabThera (rituximab) had also produced an inadequate response.

NICE said it issued this updated draft guidance rapidly, but will only confirm the recommendation in final guidance if Roche provides the Department of Health with an undisclosed discount on the drug.

Professor Carole Longson, director of the health technology evaluation centre at NICE, said: “The draft guidance resulting from the rapid review of TA198 provisionally recommends that RoActemra could be a treatment option at an earlier stage in the treatment pathway: after treatment with conventional drugs – DMARDS – has failed.”

She said that NICE has already recommended a range of drugs for RA, including the TNF inhibitors – Abbott’s Humira, Pfizer’s Enbrel, J&J’s Remicade and Simponi, and UCB’S Cimzia – for some people with rheumatoid arthritis as options for use at this stage.

“If TNF inhibitor treatments have failed and patients are unable to take MabThera, the guidance also provisionally recommends that RoActemra could be a treatment option at this point, potentially widening the choice of treatments available,” she added.

This will be good news for Roche who initially failed to sway NICE that the NHS should fund its drug in any circumstances after the watchdog questioned the firm’s cost data on the drug.

Ben Adams