BIMZELX®▼ (bimekizumab) Receives First Positive Health Technology Assessment Worldwide

• The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published its final Technology Appraisal Guidance recommending bimekizumab as a treatment option for adults with severe plaque psoriasis
• This first positive health technology assessment worldwide recognizes the value that bimekizumab can bring to patients, healthcare systems and societies

Brussels, Belgium – 6^th September 2021 – 0700 CEST – UCB, a global biopharmaceutical company, today announced that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the UK health technology assessment body that appraises new medicines for use in England and Wales, has published its final Technology Appraisal Guidance (TAG) recommending BIMZELX^® (bimekizumab) as a treatment option for adults with severe plaque psoriasis who have not responded to other systemic treatments, or if these treatments are contraindicated, or not tolerated.¹ This positive guidance is the outcome of the first health technology assessment for bimekizumab worldwide.

“The positive health technology assessment by NICE recognizes the value that bimekizumab can bring to patients, to healthcare systems and to societies, and is underpinned by UCB’s commitment to ensuring access to our innovative medicines in a timely manner,” said Emmanuel Caeymaex, Executive Vice President, Immunology Solutions and Head of U.S., UCB. “We are delighted with the speed in which bimekizumab could be available to psoriasis patients in England and Wales, and support NICE’s appraisal of our new psoriasis treatment option.”

Bimekizumab is the first medicine to be evaluated and recommended through NICE’s new Expedited Low-Risk Fast Track Appraisal, and National Health Service (NHS) funding for bimekizumab could be available in England and Wales within approximately one month.¹

NICE made its recommendations based on a submission that included efficacy and safety data from the bimekizumab Phase 3 clinical program in psoriasis.¹ It considered that evidence from these trials showed that bimekizumab was more effective than adalimumab, secukinumab and ustekinumab.¹ NICE also concluded that indirect comparisons suggested that bimekizumab was similarly or more effective than other biological treatments, including risankizumab, brodalumab and ixekizumab.¹

Further health technology assessments of bimekizumab are underway in countries in the European Union (EU), with decisions anticipated later in the year.

In August 2021, bimekizumab received marketing authorization in Great Britain,² and in countries of the EU,³ for the treatment of moderate to severe plaque psoriasis in adults who are candidates for systemic therapy.