Anti-TNF:- The 2nd Preliminary judgement has come through from NICE today
by Jane Skerrett

Anti-TNF:- The 2nd Preliminary judgement has come through from NICE today. It is more positive than the first and broadly in line with the British Society of Rheumatologists guidelines on access to anti TNFso I do welcome it.

However the recommendation does not include infliximab although if you are a patient who is already taking infliximab you can continue doing so. NASS is concerned as a patient organisation that patient choice is offered: infliximab is delivered as an infusion in a hospital setting while the other 2 anti TNF drugs are delivered by self injection and there will always be patients who are unable to self inject.

If you want to see the full text it is on www.nice.org.uk. The easiest way to find it is to put ankylosing spondylitis into the search box and that should bring it up - AS infliximab etc 2nd Appraisal Consultation Document, July 19.

You can comment on the recommendations so please do so, particularly if you are on infliximab and think it is important that it is available to future patients. It will be helpful if you let me know if you feel strongly about the infliximab exclusion as this will help to feed into my formal reply to NICE.

Jane Skerrett

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