UK’s NICE Recommends Gilead’s and Galapagos’ Rheumatoid Arthritis Drug

The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended Gilead Sciences’ and Galapagos’ Jyseleca (filgotinib) for National Health Service coverage as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.

The once-daily oral pill can be given as a monotherapy or with methotrexate. To qualify for the drug, patients must have responded poorly to two or more conventional disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs.

Gilead Sciences recently announced that it would no longer pursue FDA approval for Jyseleca and it downgraded a multibillion-dollar development pact with Galapagos.