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Use of MS drug to be cut back

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The row over rationing in the NHS has resurfaced after it emerged that a team of experts is to recommend limiting the availability of a controversial drug used to treat multiple sclerosis (MS) because it is not cost effective. The... See more » The row over rationing in the NHS has resurfaced after it emerged that a team of experts is to recommend limiting the availability of a controversial drug used to treat multiple sclerosis (MS) because it is not cost effective. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice), which decides which treatments and drugs should be made available to NHS patients, has issued a confidential consultation document on the use of the drugs beta interferon and glatiramer for treating MS. The institute is refusing to comment on the content of the proposals, but they are understood to include limiting treatment with beta interferon to the 2,000 NHS patients already taking the drug, thus disappointing around 8,000 MS sufferers that the lobby group Multiple Sclerosis Society believes could benefit from it. Beta interferon reduces the frequency of relapses in the intermittent form of MS, but cannot cure the disease. It can greatly improve the quality of life of patients. However, not all patients are able to tolerate it, and it is expensive, costing between £7,000 and £10,000 a year for each individual. The cost to the NHS in England is estimated at between £60m and £100m a year. Nice said in a statement today: "The institute has issued a consultation document on the use of the beta interferons and glatiramer for MS to the national patient and professional organisations and manufacturers, with which it is consulting. They have until September 7 to submit their comments. "This document is confidential to these consultees and the institute is unable to make any further comment at this time." Peter Cardy, chief executive of the Multiple Sclerosis Society, said: "If the leaked information is correct, we are dismayed but not entirely surprised. We shall continue to press for the verdict to be reversed." The institute made an interim decision to limit beta interferon last year, but said it would revisit its decision after reassessing the drug's cost effectiveness. Mr Cardy said the cost-effectiveness measures which Nice used were too crude to assess treatments for a long-term and highly complex disease such as MS. He criticised Nice for ignoring the "weight of positive patient experience" and relying on new and unproven evaluation techniques. Thousands of patients who could benefit from beta-interferon were being "forced to sit on the sidelines", he said, "How much longer must their agony go on as month-by-month more of them become too disabled to qualify?" According to the Multiple Sclerosis Society, only 2-3% of MS patients receive beta interferon in the UK, compared with an average of 12 to 15% in other European countries. In Denmark, the figure is about 20%. The drug is not suitable for the vast majority of the estimated 85,000 sufferers of MS in the UK. Paul Burstow, Liberal Democrat spokesman for older people, said the decision was "politically motivated rationing dressed up as clinical evaluation". "I can see no logic to Nice's decision that patients already prescribed beta interferon can have the drug but new patients cannot - either the drug is effective or it is not." Although Nice has caused controversy over its decision to limit availability of beta interferon and the flu drug relenza, it has approved new treatments for Alzheimers, obesity and breast cancer. See less »

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bad ideas, democrats, health, health care, liberals, medicine, ms, multiple sclerosis, obama, progressive, progressivism, reform

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From the list : Health Care Reform AKA why... by weepopstar

Goverment care means rationing! Poor MS sufferers have one less option for treatment thanks to government run healthcare!

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Use of MS drug to be cut back

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