What has NICE said?
Tocilizumab (RoActemra), taken with a drug called methotrexate, is recommended as a possible treatment for some adults with rheumatoid arthritis if:
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they have tried disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) and a TNF inhibitor but they have not worked, and they cannot have rituximab for medical reasons or because of a bad reaction, as long as tocilizumab is used in the same way that NICE recommends TNF inhibitors are used in adalimumab, etanercept, infliximab, rituximab and abatacept for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis after the failure of a TNF inhibitor or
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they have tried TNF inhibitors and rituximab but they have not worked.
What does this mean for me?
If you have rheumatoid arthritis, and your doctor thinks that tocilizumab is the right treatment, you should be able to have the treatment on the NHS.
Tocilizumab should be available on the NHS within 3 months of the guidance being issued.
If you are not eligible for treatment as described above, you should be able to continue taking tocilizumab until you and your doctor decide it is the right time to stop.