MANY readers will have heard about the proposal from NICE, the Government's advisory body on health treatments, that it is proposed to stop prescribing the new beta interferon drugs for people with MS.
This is heartbreaking news for people who have been waiting for treatment, sometimes for years, as a result of the NHS postcode lottery.
Multiple sclerosis is the most common disabling neurological disorder among young adults with 50 new cases being diagnosed each week.
At present, beta interferon offers people with MS in the UK the only prospect of reducing devastating and painful relapses.
In clinical trials beta interferon was shown to significantly delay the development of disability as well as reducing relapse rate.
NICE does not argue with the scientific evidence but claims that this is not enough to justify the cost. True, the drugs are expensive but so is MS and NICE does not recognise this. Most of the cost of MS attacks does not fall on the NHS, but on local social services and housing, on employers, social security and on the families of those affected.
NICE has said that the money should instead be spent on better NHS services but has no power to make this happen.
The ruling is a great injustice; there are no other treatments for MS that alter the course of this terrible disease, and the Government has played cat and mouse with us since the drug wasfirst licensed five years ago.
Readers can help by writing to Alan Milburn, Secretary of State for Health, Richmond House, Whitehall, London SW1A 2NS.
PAULA ROGERS
MS Branch Secretary, Welcome Avenue, Park North, Swindon
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