Rethink on bone disease drug hailed by group

A PATIENT support group has welcomed the decision announced yesterday by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) that it will re-appraise the use of a drug for people with bone-marrow disease.

The MDS UK support group said it felt the decision to take another look at the use of Vidaza (azacitidine) in patients with higher-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) - a group of debilitating bone marrow diseases - was the right one.

David Hall, chairman of the MDS UK Patient Support Group and MDS patient said: "We welcome this decision by Nice to re-appraise azacitidine and believe it has been brought about by the weight of patient, expert and clinical opinion behind the arguments put to the appeal panel.

"We only wish that the appraisal committee had considered these points in its initial appraisal and made this life-extending therapy available to patients from early this year. Instead patients are still waiting to see if they will be thrown a lifeline."

Yesterday's appeal panel decision requests Nice's appraisal committee to reconsider the guidance it originally issued on azacitidine, this time taking account of low-dose chemotherapy as well as best supportive care as comparisons for cost-effectiveness.

It also asks the committee to examine the data, provided by the MDS UK Patient Support Group, on quality of life.

Nice recommended, in March, that azacitidine should not be provided through the NHS on cost-effectiveness grounds, while recognising that it was clinically effective and that it should be seen as a life-extending end-of-life treatment.

In June this decision was appealed by eight organisations, including three patient groups and four healthcare professional bodies.