A NICE appraisal

NICE is investigating whether Iluvien is cost effective for uveitis in adults.

Iluvien is a steroid micro insert placed into the vitreous (jelly) of the eye. It’s put in as a painless injection. The steroid is released slowly over three years.

It will be mostly used for intermediate, pan and posterior uveitis. It is helpful if you keep getting macular oedema, or immune suppressants don’t work, or you can’t tolerate them. Sometimes oral steroid and an immune suppressant are used with it. It has a category C pregnancy risk – it has not been tested for safety in pregnancy but steroid is generally considered the safest uveitis drug to use during pregnancy.  If you’ve already needed several Ozurdex implants (a shorter acting steroid implant) this new insert may be an attractive alternative for you. The main side effects are cataract and raised eye pressure. Raised pressure affects about 34% of Iluvien recipients but this can, mostly, be controlled with pressure lowering drops.

Olivia’s Vision is nominating Alison Richards as our patient expert because she has had a very hard time with her uveitis and Iluvien has changed her life. We are also nominating Archana Pradeep as our clinical expert, the uveitis consultant in Nottingham, who is one of our former, successful OV Uveitis Fellowship trainees.

Our two experts, and OV, want to give NICE a full picture of the difference Iluvien will make to the vision of people with uveitis and to the quality of life of those with the disease and people close to them.

Here’s how you can help

If you have uveitis or you’re close to someone with it, please help us tell NICE everything about uveitis by emailing OV with your comments on any (or all!) of the following:

• What it’s like living with any type of uveitis, either as a patient or someone close to a uveitis patient.
• Vision and quality of life experienced with steroid (the good and the bad) – pills, injections, Ozurdex.
• Vision and quality of life experienced with immune suppressants and adalimumab or other biologics (the good and the bad).
• Whether you would have an Iluvien implant or encourage someone close to you to have one. Reasons?
• If you have taken part in an Iluvien clinical trial, the good (and bad) points for you.

Email: info@oliviasvision.org

If you prefer to talk to us, please email your phone number and a good time for OV to ring you.

OV & PINGU: What we’ll do as a Stakeholder consultee

• Nominate a patient expert – Alison Richards.
• Let NICE know what it’s like to live with uveitis or care for someone with it.
• Present our views about existing treatments and QoL when using them.
• Tell NICE what we think about Iluvien:
  • how it will improve our vision
  • our QoL and when we think it should be offered to us
  • our attitude to the drawbacks of cataract and the potential for raised ocular pressure.