Now English asthma patients are denied life-changing drug offered to Scots

Asthma patients in England and Wales are to be denied a life-changing drug available in Scotland (file picture)

Asthma patients in England and Wales are to be denied a life-changing drug that is available on the health service in Scotland. Doctors and charities are dismayed at the decision to withdraw the drug, Xolair, which can halve the risk of an asthma attack. It has ‘dramatically improved’ patients’ quality of life and has also halved the numbers taken to hospital because of asthma attacks, they say. They warn that the decision by drug rationing body Nice would create a ‘health apartheid’ between Scotland and England and Wales. ‘This drug is very effective for patients with severe allergic asthma and dramatically improves their quality of life,’ said Dr Andrew Menzies-Gow, a consultant in respiratory medicine at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London. He said he will be faced with patients whose symptoms are as bad as those he is currently treating, but they will have to make do with steroids.

Nice – the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence – insists the drug is not as cost effective as was thought. But Dr Menzies-Gow said the drug cut costs in the long term because it reduced the number of hospital admissions. Neil Churchill of the charity Asthma UK, said: ‘We are surprised and disappointed. Xolair is the only treatment that works for some people. Without it, more will suffer frequent life-threatening asthma attacks and disabling daily symptoms. There is no major evidence to suggest it is any less effective than was previously thought. We urge the maker, Novartis, and Nice to work together to try to find a way to make this vital treatment affordable.’

 

Hormone link to wheezing

Around 5.2million Britons have asthma. Treating it costs the UK £1billion a year. The Xolair jab has been used by around 2,000 patients since 2007, when it was approved by Nice. The cost averages around £8,000 per patient a year. Asthma attacks occur when the body detects a foreign body but overreacts by producing large amounts of antibodies.  Most treatments – such as inhalers and oral steroids – work by suppressing the symptoms but Xolair blocks the allergic triggers responsible for attacks. But now Nice has revised its thinking. If draft guidance issued today goes through, new patients in England and Wales will not be able to get Xolair from early next year.

Sir Andrew Dillon of Nice said: ‘New evidence that has become available indicates that it is not as clinically or cost-effective as was first thought.’  The NHS is failing to buy new medicines for patients, putting their health at risk and pushing up hospital costs, says the head of the UK drugs industry. Stephen Whitehead, chief executive of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said: ‘The UK is among the slowest adopter of new medicines in Europe.’

 Source: Daily Mail UK 

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