Patients set to benefit from new treatment for sight-threatening eye condition
Thousands of people could receive transformational treatment after a new option for diabetic macular oedema (DMO) was recommended by NICE.
Brolucizumab – also known as Beovu – is being recommended in final draft guidance as an option for treating visual impairment due to diabetic macular oedema in adults – the main cause of sight loss for people with diabetes in the UK.
The company estimate that over 22,000 people could benefit from the new treatment in its first year.
Diabetic macular oedema is a condition affecting the retina where blood vessels supplying nutrients and oxygen become damaged and leaky due to the high levels of glucose in the bloodstream in some people with diabetes.
Beovu – which is made by Novartis – is administered as an eye injection once every six weeks for the first five doses. After that point, clinicians decide how often the treatment should be administered depending on how the disease is responding.
Diabetic macular oedema is usually treated first with aflibercept or ranibizumab, which are anti-VEGF injections to reduce swelling. Brolucizumab is another anti-VEGF injection which works in a similar way and evidence from clinical trials shows it is as effective as aflibercept. The appraisal committee found that brolucizumab is likely to be cost saving or have similar costs compared with aflibercept and ranibizumab.
The approval process, from invitation to published recommendation, was completed in just over five months using the NICE fast-track cost comparison appraisal process. This represents half the time of an average appraisal.
A fast-track appraisal can be used when a cost comparison shows the new treatment is likely to provide similar or greater health benefits at similar or lower cost than treatments already recommended in guidance.
NICE works closely with NHS England colleagues and companies to achieve rapid positive outcomes such as this to benefit patients.
NHS England has agreed a commercial arrangement through a simple discount patient access scheme to make brolucizumab available to the NHS with a confidential discount.
