The UK’s National Institute for Clinical Excellence, or NICE, has decided that the arthritis drug shouldn’t be offered by the National Health Service, because it’s not cost effective, according to a draft guidance, The Guardian reports.

“Having examined cost-effectiveness analyses on abatacept (Orencia)…the committee concluded that abatacept could not be considered a cost-effective use of NHS resources,” the draft reads.

But the chief executive of the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society, Ailsa Bosworth, says about 12,000 people with severe arthritis, who don’t respond to other treatments, will be “condemned to a life of pain and disability, which could be equally expensive to the NHS. Denying patients leaves some with the unacceptable choices of being put back on to treatments they have already failed on, palliative care, or taking large doses of steroids which have extremely unacceptable side-effects.”

NICE says its independent advisory committee had taken into account views from patients and other groups, although the draft guidance is now open to consultation, with final guidance expected at the end of the year.

Bristol-Myers Squibb, submitted evidence showing that about 3,585 patients in the UK would be eligible for treatment with the drug. Richard Marsh, director of external affairs at Bristol-Myers Squibb, says NICE had accepted the clinical benefits of the drug.