Hospital Pharmacist
Vol 9 No 9 p252
October 2002

News summary

Remicare launched to support and develop rheumatology services

An initiative to help hospital rheumatology departments implement guidance from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) has been launched by Schering-Plough in collaboration with health care professionals and patient representatives.

The initiative, "Remicare," has been designed to provide a resource for the provision of anti-TNF therapy. The initiative will be led by a team of liaison nurses and aims to develop rheumatology services for patients with the disease, provide support for health care professionals delivering anti-TNF treatments and encourage best practice.

NICE recommended in March 2002 that anti-TNF therapy (etanercept and infliximab) should be made available for highly active rheumatoid arthritis in adults who had failed to respond to at least two standard disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, including methotrexate.

Neil Betteridge, head of public policy and campaigning, Arthritis Care, points out that funding provision for anti-TNF treatment in rheumatoid arthritis is 60 per cent lower than NICE's recommendations. Furthermore, in many hospitals, rheumatology services are not in place to use the funding that has been made available.

Mr Betteridge points out: "The NICE guidance only identifies the funding needs of the drug treatment and does not take into account the development of services to enable the delivery and monitoring of anti-TNF treatment. If patients are not being treated, then services cannot be developed, thus creating a vicious circle"

Paul Emery, professor of rheumatology, University of Leeds, says: "Remicare will be important in helping units to develop services and release funds. Improving services will result in better care for patients."

Remicare liaison nurses will not have patient contact but will solve problems faced by rheumatology units as well as sharing best practice between units. They will also be able to recommend other resources developed as part of the initiative, such as training schemes and discretionary grants for infusion pumps.