News In Reversal, NICE Recommends Relapsing MS Treatment Zinbryta for England and Wales In Reversal, NICE Recommends Relapsing MS Treatment Zinbryta for England and Wales by Patricia Silva, PhD | March 17, 2017 Share this article: Share article via email Copy article link The United Kingdom’sĀ National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has cleared its initial doubts and now recommendsĀ Zinbryta (daclizumab)Ā to treatĀ relapsing multiple sclerosis (MS) in England and Wales. NICE had initially rejectedĀ Zinbryta after a first stage of the drugās review process, due to some issues linked to the clinical and cost-effectiveness models presented by Zinbrytaās U.S. developer, Biogen. Those issues, the agency said, had raised a high degree of uncertainty. At the time, the London-basedĀ MS Society campaigned for the drug’s approval and welcomed opinions from MS patients involved in the Phase 3 (NCT01064401) and Phase 2b (NCT01051349) trials that established Zinbrytaās effectiveness and safety, as well as the opinions of all those wishing to support the submission. Those efforts paid off, and now a new treatment for relapsing MS will be available for people who are unable or unwilling to take Lemtrada (alemtuzumab) in England and Wales. In coming months, NICE will make a decision for Scotland and Northern IrelandĀ as well. TheĀ recommendation is still subject to appeal, butĀ barring any delaysĀ it should be available on the National Health Service (NHS) within three months ā meaning that Zinbryta will be available to anyone in the public healthcare system. Zinbryta, a once-a-month injection, is an antibody that is already usedĀ followingĀ kidney transplants to help prevent rejection. The drug binds to a molecule called CD25 on the surface of activated immune cells, including those thatĀ damage the myelin sheaths in MS. NICE recommends Zinbryta for patients who have active relapsing MS and who have been treated with other disease-modifying treatmentsā as well as forĀ thoseĀ with rapidly evolving severe MS, which is defined by at least two relapses in the previous year with magnetic resonance imaging scans showing new lesions. āThis is great news for people with relapsing MS,ā Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of the MS Society, said in a press release. āThis is an effective medicine and the first that people can take by self-injecting once a month. It also offers more choice to people who are currently unwilling or unable to take other MS drugs. We look forward to seeing it become widely available on the NHS in England and Wales.ā This is the first time the NHS has made a disease-modifying therapy available since 2014, meaning there are now 12 available drugs for people with relapsing MS. Print This Page About the Author Patricia Silva, PhD PatrĆcia holds a PhD in medical microbiology and infectious diseases from the Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands, and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Lisbon, Portugal. Her work in academia was mainly focused on molecular biology and the genetic traits of infectious agents such as viruses and parasites. PatrĆcia earned several travel awards to present her work at international scientific meetings. She is a published author of several peer-reviewed science articles. Tags Biogen, Daclizumab, England, NHS, NICE, relapsing MS, ZINBRYTA
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