Five new medicines have made it onto National Health Service treatment lists in Scotland for cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and a very rare condition called chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension.

The Scottish Medicines Consortium has accepted for use Eli Lilly's Alimta (pemetrexed) as a maintenance therapy in locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (other than predominantly squamous cell histology) in patients whose disease has not progressed immediately after platinum-based chemotherapy.

In studies patients taking the drug survived one to two months longer without disease progression and survived overall for three to five months longer than those taking a placebo.

Celgene’s Imnovid (pomalidomide) was accepted for use in combination with dexamethasone for the treatment of relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma in adults who have received at least two prior treatment regimens, including lenalidomide and bortezomib, and have experienced deterioration of their disease since the last therapy. 

Cost regulators across the border in England are currently minded not to recommend funding the drug on the NHS, and the SMC OK only comes after a resubmission with the inclusion of a patient access scheme to sweeten the deal.

For more details, go to: http://www.pharmatimes.com/Article/14-12-08/SMC_OKs_five_new_drugs_for_routine_use_in_Scotland.aspx