CampaignsHealthcare Rationing"Enlightened" decision provides hope for arthritis sufferers "Enlightened" decision provides hope for arthritis sufferers
24/08/2007
Thousands of people suffering from severe rheumatoid arthritis may now have their hopes of returning to a full social and working life realised, following the decision by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence's to approve the so-called "smart drug" MabThera for prescription.
Hailed as ‘enlightened’ by the UK's leading arthritis support organisation, the long-awaited decision will bring fresh hope to rheumatoid arthritis sufferers for whom anti-TNF therapy has not proved effective.
This final decision means that rituximab, used in conjunction with methotrexate, will be available on the NHS for eligible people in England and Wales, who either cannot tolerate TNF blockers or have not shown improvement with one or more such drugs.
Arthritis Care's chief executive Neil Betteridge, who has had RA since the age of three, said: "It's a triumph. The search for effective treatment can be a long, agonising journey, littered with dashed hopes. Now there's no excuse to deny this drug on anything but clinical grounds.
"NICE has shown that it understands the benefit of expanding the range of choices for individuals who have exhausted other options, and would otherwise face the bleak prospect of palliative care, and a return to drugs that have already failed them.
Anti-TNF drugs don’t work for everyone. Left untreated, the disease can be severely disabling, so pinpointing the right drug is a race against time to match a given individual to what's most suitable, so the more options available, the better"
Rituximab is already available in Scotland in accordance with a decision by NICE’s counterpart north of the border, the Scottish Medicines Consortium, whilst Northern Ireland usually follows NICE’s guidance.
Over 400,000 Britons have rheumatoid arthritis, an inflammatory disease in which the immune system does not protect the body, but attacks it instead. It is not clear what causes rheumatoid arthritis and there is no cure at present. About 10% (40,000) of the people with RA have the most severe form of the condition and it is individuals within this 40,000-strong group who may benefit from today’s decision.
In trials MabThera reduced RA symptoms by more than 50% for more than a third of patients, although some patients reported higher rates of serious infections as a consequence. A second drug, Humira, which goes under the generic name adalimumab, was also approved as a treatment option for psoriatic arthritis, which is associated with the skin disease psoriasis.
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