Scottish Medicines Consortium backs AstraZeneca/B-MS' Forxiga for type 2 diabetes

Anglo-Swedish drug major AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) and partner Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) of the USA says that the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) yesterday approved the National Health Service Boards to give physicians the go-ahead to prescribe Forxiga (dapagliflozin) to adults in Scotland with type 2 diabetes for restricted use as dual therapy in combination with metformin, when metformin alone with diet and exercise does not provide adequate glycemic control and a sulphonylurea is inappropriate.

The guidance from the SMC follows Marketing Authorization from the European Medicines Agency (The Pharma Letter November 15, 2012) and means that people with Type 2 diabetes who are not being managed on metformin alone have access to this effective new, oral once daily, first-in-class treatment. The SMC decision comes ahead of a decision due later this year from the English equivalent, the NICE.

Nearly 4% of Scotland’s population lives with type 2 diabetes