Draft guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommended against use of the medicine given the “very high” cost per year of improved health provided by Benlysta, which is also known as belimumab.

“The evidence considered did not persuade the committee that belimumab was good value for money,” Professor Carole Longson, Health Technology Evaluation Center Director at NICE, said in a statement.

NICE also said Benlysta should be compared with rituximab, sold by Roche as MabThera or Rituxan, because some people with severe lupus currently receive rituximab, although it isn’t licensed for this use. However, the agency noted there were no reliable data to show the relative efficacy of the two drugs.

The provisional recommendation from NICE is now open to public consultation.

Benlysta, the first new treatment for lupus in a half-century, was recommended for approval in Europe in May. The drug was discovered by Human Genome Sciences and developed with GSK to combat a disease that causes the immune system to attack joints and organs.