Scots fund Novartis' Glivec but not Roche's RoActemra or GSK's Benlysta
This article was originally published in Scrip
Executive Summary
The Scottish Medicines Consortium, Scotland's health technology appraisal body, has agreed to make available on the local NHS Novartis' Glivec (imatinib) for some gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST) patients for a longer duration of treatment. However, neither Roche nor GSK were able to convince the consortium to recommend their drugs, RoActemra (tocilizumab, as monotherapy) and Benlysta (belimumab) respectively.