HEALTH bosses have revealed that the North-East NHS could save more than £7m a year if doctors ignored a legal challenge and switched to a cheaper drug to prevent blindness.

The drug company Novartis is taking legal action against a number of NHS primary care trusts (PCTs) in the South to try to stop them from using the cancer drug Avastin to treat a condition called wet age-related macular degeneration, or wet AMD.

Novartis believes the PCTs should use its drug Lucentis, which has been approved to treat wet AMD by the NHS drugs watchdog Nice.

The PCTs in Southampton, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and Portsmouth decided last year to pay for doctors to use Avastin as a much cheaper alternative treatment.

The practice of using Avastin to treat wet AMD has grown after doctors in the US discovered they could get similar results by using the much cheaper alternative, even though it was not licensed for this purpose.

Using Lucentis costs about £740 per injection compared with Avastin, which costs £60.

Last night, a spokeswoman for NHS North-East said: “Discussion about the possibility of using Avastin as an effective alternative treatment choice is continuing between primary care trusts and clinicians.

“We are confident in the quality, effectiveness and clinical evidence which demonstrate Avastin as an alternative treatment for wet AMD. Equally important in these financially difficult times are the substantial cost savings which could be achieved by substituting Avastin for Lucentis – for the region’s NHS annual savings could exceed £7m.”

Wet AMD is an eye condition that leads to a progressive loss of central vision.

There are about 26,000 new cases of wet AMD in the UK every year and the condition affects more women than men.

A Novartis spokesman said: “It is unacceptable to put the safety of patients at risk through the widespread use of an unlicensed treatment when a licensed medicine is available.

“It undermines the regulatory process that was introduced to safeguard patients.”

But the PCTs using Avastin said that more than 50 per cent of AMD patients in the US are treated this way.

A spokesman for NHS North Yorkshire and York said: “In line with Nice guidelines, we routinely commission Lucentis for the treatment of AMD. We do not commission Avastin for this condition.”