Tocilizumab: where the agencies disagree
This page collects every recorded health technology assessment decision for one molecule across the agencies in our archive, and compares them. The comparison is the point: each agency publishes its own verdict, none publishes how that verdict sits against the others.
What the record shows
AIFA (Italy), AOTMIT (Poland) and DMC (Denmark), among others, recommended or restricted tocilizumab, while AWMSG (Wales) and NYE METODER (Norway) did not recommend it.
On the same population the two systems disagree outright: PBAC (Australia) recorded recommended for “Severe active rheumatoid arthritis”, while AWMSG (Wales) recorded not recommended for “For use in combination with methotrexate for the treatment of severe, active and progressive rheumatoid arthritis in adu…”.
PBAC (Australia) has been easier on tocilizumab than on its own caseload: it refused 0 of 8 decisive submissions here (0%), against a base rate of 24% across everything it has assessed.
The file has been open for more than a decade: 16 years separate the first record, 9 Sep 2009 at HAS (France), from the most recent, 10 Sep 2025 at PHARMAC (New Zealand).
HAS (France) changed its position: recommended on 9 Sep 2009, not recommended by 16 Feb 2022.
No assessment is on file from CIPM (Spain) and G-BA (Germany), each among the eight highest-volume agencies here.
Not every gap is a refusal: for tocilizumab, 2 submissions were never made and 1 was withdrawn or terminated before a decision — an outcome set by the company rather than the assessor.
The file is active: 9 of 76 records date from 2023 or later.
The programme is broad: 19 distinct indication wordings are recorded for tocilizumab by the agencies that label one in English (AWMSG, NICE, PBAC and SMC).
9 of these 76 records carry a year of decision but no day, so any interval quoted here is approximate to within a year.
HAS (France) was first to assess tocilizumab, on 9 Sep 2009; NYE METODER (Norway) did not open a file until 28 Aug 2022 — an unusually long tail of 12.9 years between the earliest and latest system to look at it.
The record arrives in waves: 14 separate years each carry two or more decisions, spread across 17 years in total.
10 of the 12 agencies here assessed tocilizumab more than once, HAS (France) most often at 17 entries — repeat review is the norm for this molecule rather than the exception.
tocilizumab has been through 12 of the 18 agencies in this archive — among the most widely assessed molecules on file.
The full ledger for tocilizumab reads 42 recommended, 9 restricted, 8 not recommended and 4 other, with 13 in other categories.
Decisions on file
| Agency | Date | Indication as recorded | Outcome | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PHARMAC (New Zealand) | 10 Sep 2025 | VEXAS syndrome | PTAC advice: High | source |
| TLV (Sweden) | 27 May 2025 | Avtozma ingår i högkostnadsskyddet | general subsidy | source |
| NYE METODER (Norway) | 27 Apr 2025 | For å bremse nedgangen i lungefunksjon hos voksne med systemisk sklerose-assosiert interstitiell lungesykdom | decision recorded | source |
| SMC (Scotland) | 10 Sep 2018 | For the treatment of Giant Cell Arteritis (GCA) in adult patients. | accepted (restricted) | source |
| PBAC (Australia) | 2018 | Giant Cell Arteritis | The PBAC deferred making a decision regarding the listing tocilizumab for the treatment of… | source |
71 further decisions for tocilizumab, across 12 agencies, are not shown here. They link to 43 further source documents.
Related molecules
- adalimumab — same ATC class L04A — Immunosuppressants
- upadacitinib — same ATC class L04A — Immunosuppressants
- secukinumab — same ATC class L04A — Immunosuppressants
- ustekinumab — same ATC class L04A — Immunosuppressants
- infliximab — same ATC class L04A — Immunosuppressants
- lenalidomide — same ATC class L04A — Immunosuppressants
Coverage: 76 decisions for tocilizumab from 12 agencies, 2009 to 2025. Data to 7 Sep 2026. ATC class L04A — Immunosuppressants. How this page is produced. Compiled by Altima Partners; queries: sales@altimapartners.co.uk.