http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010808/hl/ms_1.html
Wednesday August 8 10:38 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters Health) - The UK
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society proposed a formula on Wednesday that might
enable patients to receive therapy despite a healthcare watchdog's view
that MS drugs are not cost effective.
The National Institute for Clinical
Excellence (NICE) has provisionally concluded that beta-interferon and
glatiramer acetate should not yet be paid for by the state-funded National
Health Service (NHS).
However, the MS Society said that
the Department of Health had now agreed to meet the society to discuss
the issue.
Welcoming the department's response,
society chief executive Peter Cardy said, "We have outlined a proposal
to Health Secretary Alan Milburn which would allow people meeting the criteria
for the drugs to receive them while a rigorous scientific study of their
routine use is made over a period of years."
A spokesman for the patient group
told Reuters Health that one of the problems identified by NICE was that
there is considerable uncertainty over which patients benefit from therapy
and for how long.
To resolve these doubts, the society
is proposing that up to 10,000 UK patients who meet the clinical criteria
for therapy should be prescribed drugs and monitored over a number of years.
"We hope this will be seen as constructive," he said.
For its part, NICE's appraisal committee
has called upon the Department of Health and manufacturers to find a way
for any of the MS drugs to be secured for NHS patients "in a manner which
could be considered to be cost effective."
In a document published on the NICE
Web site, the committee indicated this would require a significant reduction
in the total cost of acquiring the drugs by the NHS in England and Wales.
Hinting at the need for more study
of the drugs, it added, "The uncertainty surrounding the definition of
which patients benefit and to what extent are factors which could be considered
relevant in any discussions between the Department of Health and manufacturers
on ways in which these medicines could be acquired cost effectively."
The Association of the British Pharmaceutical
Industry said NICE's provisional recommendation was "extremely disappointing
and entirely inappropriate."
It added that it was "disingenuous"
of NICE to propose price cuts when company profits on medicines sold to
the NHS were already strictly regulated.
Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited
By Richard Woodman