The Scottish Medicines Consortium has approved funding for four new medicines on NHS Scotland, expanding treatment options for patients with psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis and hepatitis C.

Psoriasis patients in the country will be the first in the UK to get treatment with Celgene’s first-in-class Otezla (apremilast) on the NHS, after the SMC recommended its use for moderate-to-severe chronic plaque psoriasis in adults who have failed to respond to or can’t take other systemic therapy.

The drug was also endorsed for psoriatic arthritis, an inflammatory joint condition affecting around 20% of psoriasis patients, in those who have had an inadequate response with at least two prior disease-modifying anti-rheumatic (DMARD) therapies or were intolerant to a prior DMARD therapy.

Otezla was approved in Europe in January this year; cost regulators for the NHS in England and Wales are also currently considering its cost-effectiveness.

Meanwhile, the SMC also approved for NHS use Novartis’ Cosentyx (secukinumab) as a new treatment for psoriasis, for patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis who have failed to respond to standard systemic therapies, or those that are intolerant to, or cannot take these treatments.

For more details, go to: http://www.pharmatimes.com/Article/15-06-08/Four_new_drugs_approved_for_NHS_use_in_Scotland.aspx