NICE rules out dementia drugs for mild AD

The UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has stood by its earlier decision to deny access to anti-dementia medicines to all National Health Service patients newly diagnosed with mild Alzheimer's disease. The NICE's Appeal Panel dismissed arguments it heard from drugmaker and doctor groups on July 13-14.

The panel heard a joint appeal from the Alzheimer's Society, Age Concern, Counsel and Care, Dementia Care Trust and the Royal College of Nursing; a second joint appeal from the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the British Geriatrics Society; and three separate appeals from drugmakers.

The ruling means that the UK health authority will not reimburse primary care trusts that decide to treat mild AD patients with Eisai and Pfizer's co-developed Alzheimer's disease drug Aricept (donepezil), Novartis' Excelon (rivastigmine) and Johnson & Johnson/Shire's Reminyl (galantamine), among others. The NICE says it will delay issuing its final guidance for a further five weeks to coincide with the publication of new guidelines on the management of dementia, including AD.