A potential sight-saving drug for people with diabetic macular oedema (DMO) has been turned down for use on the NHS by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), despite appeals from four UK charities.
Charities Diabetes UK and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) were joined by the Macular Disease Society (MDS) and the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), with additional backing form The Royal College of Ophthalmologists and The Royal College of Nursing, in calls for the drug, Lucentis, to be made widely available.
The charities have joined forces to urge Lucentis manufacturer, Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK Ltd, to push through a Patient Access Scheme with the Department of Health and NICE in order to reduce the cost of the treatment to the NHS and ensure the estimated 50,000 people in the UK with DMO could have an opportunity to benefit from the treatment.
Novartis said they were “extremely disappointed” that NICE decided to maintain its final decision not to recommend the use of Lucentis (ranibizumab), having rejected all appeal points raised by all appellants.
NICE announced its original decision not to recommend Lucentis as a treatment for people with DMO on the NHS in July on the basis of cost-effectiveness. The charities appealed this decision, arguing that NICE failed to act fairly as key patient organisations and clinicians were not given the opportunity to comment on significant new evidence submitted by the drug manufacturer which may have led to incorrect conclusions being drawn in NICE's final decision.
DMO is a serious eye condition which can lead to sight loss as a result of fluid leaking from the small blood vessels in the eye. For the last 25 years laser treatment has been the standard treatment for DMO on the NHS, but this method only stops vision from deteriorating further rather than leading to improvement. Lucentis, given in the form of an injection in the eye, however, is the first licensed treatment to produce rapid and sustained improvement in vision in people with sight loss due to DMO.
DRWF Editorial Advisory Board member Dr Deborah Broadbent said: "Laser remains an effective treatment for macular oedema but cannot restore vision once lost. Every effort must therefore be made to ensure that patients with maculopathy are identified early (screening) and treatment is given before the vision has dropped significantly. The reality is that there will always be patients who present late or in whom laser has failed and at the very least Lucentis should be available to treat them."
More information
NHS medicine guide to Lucentis: http://tinyurl.com/cm4j5a8
NICE guidance on Macular degeneration (age-related) - ranibizumab and pegaptanib: http://www.nice.org.uk/Guidance/TA155
The DRWF patient information leaflet entitled ‘How can diabetes affect my eyes?’ can be found here:DRWF Information Leaflets