The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 279 No 7461 p66
21 July 2007

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SMC accepts four new medicines

Rotigotine transdermal patches have been accepted for use by the NHS in Scotland following a resubmission by their manufacturer to the Scottish Medicines Consortium. The product is to be used as monotherapy to treat the signs and symptoms of early stage Parkinson's disease.

The SMC also accepted exenatide injection for the treatment of type 2 diabetes in combination with metformin and/or sulphonylureas in patients who have not achieved adequate glycaemic control using maximum doses of the oral drugs.

The methylphenidate prolonged-release product Medikinet XL was accepted for restricted use in attention deficit disorder of children aged over six years when remedial measures have proved insufficient.

A fourth product — montelukast (Singulair Paediatric) — was accepted for restricted use as an alternative treatment to low-dose inhaled corticosteroids for patients aged from two to 14 years with mild persistent asthma who have no recent history of serious attacks requiring oral steroids and who cannot use inhaled steroids properly.

The SMC decided not to make any recommendations for use in relation to seven medicines for specific indications, three of them because the manufacturers failed to submit any evidence.

The seven products are bemiparin injection (Zibor), bevacizumab (Avastin), erlotinib (Tarceva), ibritumomab (Zevalin), imiquimod cream (Aldara), sunitinib (Sutent) and trastuzumab (Herceptin).