Alzheimer’s drugs ‘are not cost effective’ (From The Northern Echo)

Alzheimer’s drugs ‘are not cost effective’

9:37am Thursday 28th June 2007 in Don't Stop Dementia Drugs

NEW drugs for Alzheimer's disease were a very long way off being cost effective for mild sufferers, the High Court was told yesterday.

Even though the anti-dementia drugs were licensed as clinically effective, their benefit was a limited one, said a QC appearing for the Government's medicines watchdog.

But the Alzheimer's Society said the approach of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) "simply defies human experience" and it had failed to listen to the voices of thousands of sufferers and their families.

Nice, which is responsible for providing national guidance on treatments to be made available on the NHS, is defending itself against accusations of unlawfully, unfairly and irrationally ceasing to recommend three specific drugs for the early stages of Alzheimer's.

It is the first High Court challenge of its kind to a decision of Nice, and potentially affects tens of thousands of people and the way the watchdog operates in future.

Eisai, the Japanese company that makes one of the drugs, Aricept, and Pfizer, which distributes it in Britain, launched the legal action and is asking a judge to order Nice to reconsider its decision.

Eisai argues that the medicines watchdog's assessment of the costs of the drugs to the NHS purse in relation to the benefits they bring to sufferers and their families is procedurally flawed and cannot stand.

Members of the Alzheimer's Society, which represents 630,000 people with the disease and their carers, is backing the challenge, which was in its third day.