More MS news articles for Jan 2002

NICE Appeal panel decides

25 January 2002

NICE Appeal panel decides

Having taken two months to deliberate NICE has finally notified us that the Appeal panel has dismissed the appeals made by seven organisations against the negative Final Appraisal Determination on the disease modifying drug therapies. Click here:
http://www.nice.nhs.uk/article.asp?a=26812
to see the statement by NICE

This is not a surprise but a further disappointment for people with MS who are denied access to these drugs unlike their counterparts in other countries. However, hope is on the horizon as the Department of Health (DoH) has now intervened and is in the final stages of agreeing a risk-sharing scheme with the pharmaceutical companies. The MS Trust is working to support this initiative. Click here:
http://www.mstrust.org.uk/cgi-bin/pages.pl?cgiaction=displayparent&key=206
to see the MS Trust’s official press release.

The process from now onwards:

The only further step in the NICE process would be judicial review. Anyone wanting to take this route has to lodge their case within 3 months.
On 4 February NICE will issue their guidance to the NHS.
In tandem with the NICE guidance on 4 February the DoH will issue a statement on their scheme.

Once the scheme has been announced the MS Trust will be producing a summary sheet, placing information on this website and organising a chat room so watch for more information.