UK’s NICE Changes Stance on New Osteoporosis Drug

April 1, 2022

The novel osteoporosis drug Evenity can be prescribed on the NHS, according to NICE. The move is a reversal of their previous draft guidance not to reimburse the drug on the grounds that it is not cost-effective. Evenity, produced by UCB and Amgen, is the first drug of its class and the first new osteoporosis therapy in the UK for a decade.

According to Phil Taylor of PharmaPhorum, “It also ends a situation in which patients in Scotland and Northern Ireland were able to get access to the medicine, while their counterparts in England and Wales could not. It was approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in 2020, with Scotland giving use of the drug a green light the following November and Northern Ireland in January 2021.”