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news.The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has granted approval for six new medicines for routine use by NHS Scotland.
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The approved medicines include trastuzumab (Herceptin) for stomach cancer, radium 223 (Xofigo) and abiraterone (Zytiga) for prostate cancer, and nintedanib (Ofev) for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (a long term disease of the lungs).
Trastuzumab is used to treat some types of gastric cancer, while Radium 223 is used to treat men with prostate cancer and abiraterone was accepted to use at an early stage in the treatment pathway for prostate cancer.
Nintedanib (Ofev) is used to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, while Ciclosporin eye drops (Ikervis) are used to treat severe keratitis.
SMC also recommended insulin degludec / liraglutide (Xultophy) to treat diabetes patients.
The committee has not recommended everolimus (Afinitor) for breast cancer, which was also considered under the patient and clinician engagement (PACE) process.
SMC chair professor Jonathan Fox said: "We are pleased to be able to accept these six medicines for routine use by NHS Scotland, four of them through our PACE process.
"Effective treatments for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis are limited, and we know patients will welcome the advice on medicines for prostate cancer and stomach cancer. This brings the number of medicines accepted through PACE to 23."