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news.The UK healthcare cost watchdog NICE has recommended against offering rheumatoid arthritis patients Bristol-Myers-Squibb's Orencia on the NHS.
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The National Institute for Clinical Excellence and Health, or NICE, said in the draft recommendation that Biogen Idec’s MabThera (rituximab) had very similar outcomes to Orencia (abatacept) at a significantly lower price and therefore concluded that abatacept could not be considered a cost effective use of NHS resources in comparison.
The committee also said that it “considered that it was a weakness in the evidence that there were no direct head-to-head comparisons of abatacept with alternative conventional DMARD regimens, TNF-alpha inhibitors or rituximab.”
The agency said that for an average patient the annual drug cost will be GBP10,584 excluding tax in the first year and GBP9,828 excluding tax in subsequent years.