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NICE Recommends 7 Rheumatoid Arthritis Biologicals

February 1, 2016

The UK’s healthcare cost watchdog has issued a final guidance that will reimburse seven biologicals as options for treating severe rheumatoid arthritis in patients who have not responded to conventional treatments.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance recommends AbbVie’s Humira; Amgen’s Enbrel; Johnson & Johnson/ Merck’s Remicade and its biosimilars — Celltrion’s Remsima and  Hospira’s Inflectra; UCB’s Cimzia; Janssen’s Simponi (sold by Merck, Sharp & Dohme in the EU); Roche’s RoActemra and Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Orencia. The body recommended each in combination with methotrexate.

“This guidance considers at what stage it’s clinically and cost effective to start using biological therapies as treatment options for adults with rheumatoid arthritis,” says Carole Longson, director of the health technology evaluation center at NICE. “This guidance reaffirms our previous recommendations on these drugs and confirms their place as an integral part of the rheumatoid arthritis treatment pathway.”