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" Patients with rheumatoid arthritis in England and Wales will now have access to a new treatment option called Cimzia (certolizumab pegol). The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) has decided to approve the drug for use in patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis after agreeing a cost-sharing scheme with its manufacturer, UCB. Studies have shown Cimzia to be effective at reducing the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, a debilitating autoimmune disease that affects more than 350,000 people in Britain. Professor Peter Taylor, a rheumatology expert at Imperial College London, described the decision to approve the drug for NHS use as &amp;#039;exciting&amp;#039;. He explained that Cimzia &amp;#039;has been shown to rapidly improve patients&amp;#039; symptoms and to significantly reduce the rate of progression of joint damage associated with rheumatoid arthritis&amp;#039;. Under the scheme agreed with UCB, the manufacturer will pay for the cost of patients&amp;#039; treatment for the first 12 weeks, after which the NHS will foot the bill. Professor Alan Silman, medical director of the Arthritis Research Campaign, welcomed the drug&amp;#039;s approval and pointed out that the scheme will be beneficial for both patients and the NHS. However, he warned: &amp;#039;We&amp;#039;ve got to be careful that this scheme is not a marketing ploy which enables the NHS to switch patients on to this drug to save money in the short term, and that it doesn&amp;#039;t distort the process by which clinicians make prescribing decisions.&amp;#039; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/healthy-living/news/a19102/nhs-patients-to-get-new-rheumatoid-arthritis-drug-cimzia/>