Campaigners: AMD decision down to patient power
Friday, 14 Dec 2007 14:58
The Macular Disease Society has hailed the strength of "patient power" as the key reason for a change in guidelines for use of a key sight-saving drug.
Reacting to the decision by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) to reassess the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the society said it was a major "victory" for sufferers.
Chief executive Tom Bremridge, said the change in policy on Lucentis was good for patients in future but that "getting there has left many to go blind when treatment was available but not funded".
"We are delighted by the new Nice guidelines which will have a wonderful outcome for about 26,000 new wet AMD patients per year," he said.
"The drug has a beneficial effect on 90 per cent of patients. However the good news is tinged with bitterness that it has taken such an effort of persuasion by all the interested parties to shift Nice from a position that defied common sense."
According to the society, its members wrote more than 3,500 letters of complaint to Nice chief executive Andrew Dillon after the first consultation was released in June 2007.
The initial consultation recommended treatment for the second eye only when the patient already had the disease in one eye.
Following the reappraisal, Nice is considering draft guidance that recommends the NHS should pay for a maximum of 14 injections of Lucentis per eye.