Don't Stop Dementia Drugs
Alzheimer’s drugs ‘are not cost effective’
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.
9:37am Thursday 28th June 2007
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