Don't Stop Dementia Drugs
Prime Minister rejects cancer drugs plea
PRIME Minister Gordon Brown has rejected an MP's plea for him to intervene in the row about access to anti-dementia drugs.
Two years ago, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) restricted the use of Aricept and other drugs used in the treatment of dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
The decision to restrict the drugs to patients who had reached the moderate stage of Alzheimer's was strongly criticised by the Alzheimer's Society.
It led to demonstrations by hundreds of people on the streets of Newcastle and York.
More than 3,000 signatures were handed to the Department of Health backing The Northern Echo's Don't Stop Dementia Drugs campaign, launched earlier this year. Hopes were raised in August when drug companies asked a High Court judge to force Nice to change its guidance.
But hopes were dashed when the judge rejected most of the applications and backed Nice.
Yesterday, Barnsley Central MP Eric Illsley asked Prime Minister Gordon Brown to persuade the institute to release the formula used to come to its controversial conclusions.
Mr Brown said: "We established Nice so that it could make its decisions transparently, independently and free from political interference. I think that in the light of the current legal action relating to this, it would be inappropriate to comment further on the specifics of what he has said."
However, the Prime Minister pointed out that the Department of Health is investing £20m in a new national research network on neurological disease, which will expand the number of clinical treatment trials.
Aricept maker Eisai Limited has appealed against the court's judgement.
8:29am Thursday 25th October 2007
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