New Treatment Joins NICE Spinal Arthritis Recommendations

UCB’s Cimzia may soon be added to the list of arthritis drugs provided under England and Wales’ National Health Service, following a final draft recommendation by the UK’s healthcare cost watchdog.

Cimzia (certolizumab pegol) joins three other drugs recommended in January by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence for the treatment of arthritis in the spine: AbbVie’s Humira (adalimumab) and Pfizer’s Enbrel (etanercept) for ankylosing spondylitis and nonradiographic axial spondyloarthritis, and Merck’s Simponi (golimumab) for ankylosing spondylitis.

These four TNF-? inhibitors remain a cost-effective use of NHS resources four months later, NICE says in final draft guidance released Friday. When the appraisal committee ran the numbers, it found that the cost-effectiveness analyses of all four drugs for ankylosing spondylitis ranged between $32,200 and $35,223 per quality life year gained.

For nonradiographic axial spondyloarthritis, the cost was between $44,677 and $47,000.

NICE declined to recommend Merck’s Remicade (infliximab) for ankylosing spondylitis, saying the appraisers weren’t sure that the drug’s benefits could be sustained longer than 12 weeks. Cost-effectiveness analyses pegged the drug’s cost at $57,500 to $67,700.

If finalized, the guidance would also apply to biosimilars of Remicade, such as Hospira’s Inflectra and Celltrion’s Remsima.

The recommendations are notable as NICE usually turns down any drug with a cost-effectiveness price tag higher than $46,000 per quality of life year gained.

Comments are due June 19. The appraisal committee will meet on June 30 to consider a final version of the guidance. Read the draft guidance at www.fdanews.com/05-29-15-NICErecs.pdf. — Lena Freund