Blindness prevention drug could save NHS £84.5m, trial results show

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/may/06/blindness-prevention-drug-could-save-nhs-money


A groundbreaking trial funded by the NHS has shown that a cheap, unlicensed drug to prevent blindness is just as effective as the expensive one marketed by a major pharmaceutical company.

If all patients needing treatment were given unlicensed Avastin injections instead of Lucentis, the NHS could save £84.5m, the researchers calculate.

The first year's results of the trial, called Ivan, which compared the two drugs head to head, shows that Lucentis, at £741 a vial, is no better than Avastin, at £40. It also shows that treating patients when a checkup reveals they need it, rather than every month, leads to equally good results and further reduces the bill.

The results raise the stakes in what has been seen as a confrontation between pharmaceutical companies fighting to protect the high prices they charge for their drugs and some doctors and others in the NHS who fear the bill for treating the estimated 513,000 people with wet macular degeneration could become unaffordable. As the ageing population grows, the numbers affected are expected to rise to 679,000 by 2020.

[bemildred]

1. Such compassion for the ill and the elderly these drug CEOs have. nt