UK's NICE "fails common sense test"

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, the UK advisory body which recommends medical treatments in England and Wales under the National Health Service, has come under renewed attack over its latest draft recommendation, to provide limited access for patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) to two innovative drugs.

...over AMD drugs

Global drug behemoth Pfizer's Macugen (pegaptanib injection) was rejected outright by the NICE, despite being recommended in Scotland by the Scottish Medicines Consortium since last August (Marketletter June 18). Earlier this month, Swiss drug major Novartis' Lucentis (ranibizumab) was recommended in Scotland, having been cleared across the European Union in January (Marketletter January 29). The NICE has now decided to recommend that only one eye should be saved, where patients are found to be suffering from AMD in both.