PBAC to review biological anti-rheumatic drugs

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee will revise the access criteria for funded biological anti-rheumatic drugs for rheumatoid arthritis to ensure they reflect best clinical practice. The change was flagged in the PBAC's latest public summary document, which detailed its review into the clinical and cost-effectiveness data of six biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). At present, access to the PBS-listed therapies is limited to patients who meet certain eligibility criteria, including having severe, active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and failing to respond to a non-biological DMARD. The committee has also recommended that patients should no longer be excluded from accessing PBS-funded RA therapies for five years if they fail to respond to three of these therapies. Instead, it has proposed patients will be allowed to try a maximum of five biological DMARDs. Dr Claire Barrett, of the Australian Rheumatology Association, said the association was hopeful the revised initiation criteria would be beneficial for patients. However, she was disappointed the recommendations around the exclusion period had been presented to the Federal Government without consulting the association. "We remain ever hopeful a solution will be found that will not disadvantage those very few patients with very severe RA who may just fall outside this seemingly inflexible rule," she said. The committee also flagged the need for a significant price reduction across all the therapies and the possibility it would recommend removing one of the therapies -- anakinra (Kineret) -- from the PBS....