MabThera for leukemia OKed in Scotland

The Scottish Medicines Consortium, which provides guidance for treatments under the National Health Service for that country, has  announced a positive recommendation for the use of Swiss drug major  Roche's MabThera (rituximab) in combination with fludarabine and  cyclophosphamide (FC) chemotherapy for previously-untreated patients  with the UK's most common form of leukemia, chronic lymphocytic  leukemia.

When added to FC chemotherapy, rituximab more than doubles the number of  CLL patients achieving complete remission and halts the progression of  the disease for almost a year longer than chemotherapy alone. As many as  1,850 patients in Scotland are living with CLL.

John Davies, consultant hematologist at Western General Hospital,  Edinburgh, commented: "the addition of rituximab to chemotherapy is a  major advance in the treatment of CLL and this is very welcome news for  the entire CLL community. The guidance from the SMC means that as of  today, physicians in Scotland are able to prescribe rituximab for their  patients, allowing many to enjoy longer periods of remission without  debilitating symptoms."