Biogen UK welcomes the decision by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to broaden patient access to biologics, including biosimilars, to treat moderate rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The Final Appraisal Document (FAD) recommends adalimumab, etanercept, and infliximab as options for treating active moderate rheumatoid arthritis in adults whose disease is not controlled following intensive therapy with two or more conventional disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (csDMARDs).

NICE TA375 was the appraisal of the clinical and cost effectiveness of multiple biological therapies that were previously only available to patients with severe RA. Since TA375 was published in 2016, cost-effective biosimilar versions of adalimumab, etanercept and infliximab have become available prompting the review for patients with moderate RA.

As the leader in Europe1 providing anti-TNF therapies, Biogen believes passionately in expanding the treatment options for patients and physicians to meet individual needs. Biogen’s biosimilars portfolio has saved the NHS an estimated ￡548 million in 20202.

James Porter, Biogen’s Head of Biosimilars UK and Ireland said: “Biosimilars play a crucial role in expanding the treatment options for patients. We are proud to be at the forefront of a transformation in healthcare sustainability broadening access to these therapies. Biogen currently provides biosimilar treatments for more than 62,000 patients3 in the UK and welcomes the expansion of access to anti-TNF therapy to patients with moderate rheumatoid arthritis as a result of the NICE TA375 appraisal4. As an innovative company committed to realising the potential health benefits that biosimilars play in the UK’s healthcare system, Biogen will ensure continued focus on enabling access to these key biosimilars therapies for a broader patient population across the NHS.”

Biosimilars are products that demonstrate similar efficacy and safety to the originator’s reference product, with the advantage that they can be more affordable for healthcare systems so enabling broader access for patients. Biogen’s biosimilars contribute to providing more patients with earlier access to treatment, changing their lives for the better.

Biogen will continue to work with NICE on increasing treatment access to make a difference to the lives of patients across a range of medical conditions and to enable healthcare professionals to optimise targeted treatment cost-effectively while meeting the specific needs of each patient. Biogen shares a common goal to reduce healthcare costs to make health systems sustainable by providing physicians and patients with affordable biosimilars treatments.

About Biosimilars

Biosimilars are biologic products that have been demonstrated to be similar in efficacy, safety and immunogenicity to the originator’s approved reference product, with the advantage that they offer cost savings to healthcare systems. Biosimilars may lower healthcare system costs broadly, creating headroom for innovation and could enable governments to potentially redirect savings to priorities such as increasing access to transformative therapies.

About Biogen

At Biogen, our mission is clear: we are pioneers in neuroscience. Biogen discovers, develops, and delivers worldwide innovative therapies for people living with serious neurological and neurodegenerative diseases. One of the world's first global biotechnology companies, Biogen was founded in 1978 by Charles Weissmann, Heinz Schaller, Kenneth Murray and Nobel Prize winners Walter Gilbert and Phillip Sharp, and is focused on potential therapies in neuromuscular, neurodegenerative, acute neurology, and ophthalmology disease areas. Biogen also believes that biosimilars, and their associated cost-savings, are central to safeguarding future healthcare.