Arthritis: Medical Treatments

(asked on 23rd June 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the effect of access to multiple innovative advanced therapies on supporting people with moderate rheumatoid arthritis to achieve disease remission.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 1st July 2021

We have made no such assessment. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for providing evidence-based guidance for the NHS on whether new medicines represent a clinically and cost-effective use of resources. NICE is committed to publishing draft guidance on all new medicines at the time of licensing with final guidance published within three months of licensing wherever possible. The National Health Service in England is legally required to fund medicines recommended in a NICE appraisal, usually within three months of final guidance.

NICE has recommended a number of medicines for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis for some or all of the eligible patient population, including upadacitinib for treating severe rheumatoid arthritis in December 2020 and filgotinib for treating moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis in February 2021. NICE expects to publish further guidance on treatments for rheumatoid arthritis, axial spondylarthritis and psoriatic arthritis in the next few months.

Reticulating Splines