Alzheimer's patients despair as drug decision is delayed
SocietyGuardian.co.uk | Health | Alzheimer's patients despair as drug decision is delayed: "James Meikle, health correspondent::The GuardianGovernment advisers have delayed a decision on the use of drugs to combat Alzheimer's disease as a row intensifies over the way the NHS determines which treatments it can afford...
Draft proposals to end routine prescription of four drugs for newly diagnosed patients on the grounds that they are not cost-effective sparked an outcry from patient groups, carers, doctors and manufacturers earlier this year.
Clive Ballard, the research director at the Alzheimer's Society, said: "It seems absolutely outrageous that drugs so clearly clinically effective should be withheld at such a modest cost.
"These drugs are not a cure ... but they do give people significant benefits ... In the context of most serious conditions, people would say buying a year of quality of life is something worth achieving."
About 750,000 Britons are thought to have dementia, of whom two-thirds are Alzheimer's patients"
posted by Jen @ 9:11 AM
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