UK's NICE Gives the Green Light to Rituximab

[Hammy8241]

UK's NICE Gives the Green Light to Rituximab (http://www.vasculitis.org.uk/news/nice-rituximab-jan-2014)

Basically means that those with WG in the UK no longer have to apply for funding - Great news. :)

[renidrag]

Great news Hammy.

[gilders]

NICE did approve rtx some while ago in UK, but the rules on who could receive it were stricter. An example being that itcould only be used alongside much less expensive cyclo and cyclo had to be used as the majority of the patient's treatment. This meant that patients such as myself who can't tolerate cyclo would not be able to have rtx. As I have renal failure I cannot have mtx. This led to me having no available strong drugs.
The new rules now mention that rtx will be available for patients who cannot tolerate cyclo. This is a big relief for me, so thank you for posting the link.

[Geoff]

Caught this info the other day from Vasculitis UK, such good news!!

Cheers Hammy for spreading the good news, hope to catch up with you real soon!!

[vdub]

As I have renal failure I cannot have mtx.
Interesting.... I didn't know that renal failure prohibited mtx. I'm not having renal failure, but that's a tidbit that is nice to know. My PCP told me about a month ago that new study showed people on mtx rarely have heart attacks. I guess that would be an advantage, but mtx certainly causes enough other bad things....