UK charity to fund Lucentis court case

The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), a UK charity, has announced it will support the legal battle by an 84-year old man to have access to Swiss drug major Novartis' Lucentis (ranibizumab). The decision follows the controversy over a ruling by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence to recommend that the drug should only be made available to National Health Service patients in restricted circumstances (Marketletter June 25).

Steve Winyard, an RNIB spokesman, told the BBC that the Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust, which claims to consider cases individually, had yet to authorize the drug to a patient.