The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 276 No 7388 p195
18 February 2006

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MPs slam NICE Alzheimer's recommendation

Over 20 MPs have backed an all-party motion describing as “unethical” the recent recommendation by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence to allow access to Alzheimer's disease drugs only to patients in the moderate stage of the illness (PJ, 28 January, p98).

The motion, by Howard Stoate (Labour, Dartford), said: “The decision is illogical as it excludes both mild and severe patients from effective treatment, removing the choice of clinicians to diagnose and treat patients early and effectively, and removing the choice of clinicians to prescribe more than one class of drug. It is unethical to expect clinicians to wait for patients to deteriorate before offering well-proven and efficacious treatments and the decision will place clinicians in the difficult position of having to withdraw treatments from severe stage patients at a point when behavioural issues are more prevalent and problematical and carers more stressed.”