UK's NICE draft guidance recommends Bristol-Myers Orencia for RA

UK drugs watchdog the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has today (December 6, 2012) opened a consultation on draft guidance which recommends US pharma major Bristol-Myers Squibb’s (NYSE: BMY) Orencia) for rheumatoid arthritis after conventional disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) have failed, reversing a negative decision last year on National Health Service use of the drug which is deemed not cost effective (The Pharma Letter March 31, 2011).

The draft recommendations say that abatacept in combination with methotrexate is recommended as an option for treating people with rheumatoid arthritis only if: the disease has responded inadequately to two conventional non-biological DMARDs including methotrexate and it is used in line with the recommendations for other biological DMARDs in adalimumab, etanercept and infliximab for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (NICE technology appraisal guidance 130), and the manufacturer provides abatacept with the discount agreed in the patient access scheme.

The draft guidance also says that people currently receiving abatacept, but whose disease does not meet these criteria, should be able to continue treatment until they and their clinician consider it appropriate to stop.