Kevzara (Sarilumab) article in todays Daily Mail about woman with PMR

[Tiggy70]

For anyone interested there’s a full page article in todays Daily Mail about a woman’s experience with PMR/GCA (See above). Sarilumab (Kevzara) is mentioned as possibly being released by NICE for PMR patients next year. I’m not sure how accurate that is.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Already posted - twice -

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

[Tiggy70 in reply to DorsetLady]

Sorry didn’t see those😬

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer in reply to Tiggy70]

No probs… if HU’s algorithms worked you might have seen related posts….

[Grammy80 in reply to DorsetLady]

😅😂😅 Yep, here I am 9 days late looking for the link....thanks🥴💞

[PMRpro Ambassador]

As I explained on one of the other threads - it may be submitted to NICE for consideration next year. It is highly unlikely to be approved then. Officially it takes just under a year

cancerresearchuk.org/about-...

But the most likely decision is strict restriction as was the case with tocilizumab for GCA - in 2018 only a 52 week supply for patients with relapsing biopsy/imaging proven GCA was approved. Six years later that is still the case, despite protestation and an appeal is underway to get it extended - after a self-funded study of the relapse rate after a stopping TCZ after a year.

NICE claimed they could only approve a year as there were no long term safety studies. TCZ has been used in rheumatology since 2012 - with no restrictions on duration of use.

[SnazzyD]

I bet it’ll only be for tricky cases or something that will mean it isn’t first line for all since it’ll be very expensive. Similar to GCA and Actemra.

[AtopicGuy]

The article is based on this US-based study from October 2023, which includes Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta as an author:

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/377...

Quite rightly, those not injected with sarilumab were injected with a placebo instead. The study was funded by Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, the makers of sarilumab (brand name Kevzara).

[Tiggy70]

Thanks. As PMR pro says I don’t think it’ll be available for us to try anytime soon.