Bristol-Myers Squibb's rheumatoid arthritis drug Orencia should not be prescribed to people using Britain's state health service because it is too expensive, watchdog NICE said in a draft decision on Thursday.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), which assess the value of medicines in England and Wales, said it expects a final decision towards the end of 2007 on the drug, which is known generically as abatacept.
"Having examined the cost effectiveness analyses on abatacept against a range of comparators, the committee concluded that abatacept could not be considered a cost effective use of NHS resources," the draft recommendation said.
Bristol Myers disputed that Orencia was not cost-effective, saying the average annual cost of 9,336.60 pounds ($18,900) was similar to that of rival drugs.
More at Reuters
No comments:
Post a Comment