Healthcare News

Court rules for a review of Alzheimer's drug restrictions
02/05/2008
Plans to restrict access to Alzheimer's medication on the NHS are to be reviewed after a court ruling stated Nice must publish the guidelines it used to make its decision.

Plans to restrict access to Alzheimer's medication on the NHS are to be reviewed after a court ruling.

Three judges in the court of appeal found that the process by which the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) decided to restrict access to medications for people in the early stages of dementia was procedurally unfair.

Nice now has to release a full copy of its cost-effectiveness model used to produce guidance over the medication and has been invited to make a new determination after the drugs companies involved in the case make representations when they have studied the guidance model.

Nick Burgin, managing director of Eisai, the drugs company behind aricept, said that the ruling was a "victory for common sense".

"We hope that this action will ultimately restore access to anti-dementia medicines for those patients at the mild stages of Alzheimer's disease," he added.

In a statement on its website the Alzheimer's Society, said that the judgement was a "damning indictment" of the flawed process by which Nice had reached its initial decision and added that it is urgent people be given access to the treatment.

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