In the first ever High Court challenge of its kind, a judge was urged to force the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (aka National Institite for Curbing Expenditure), to reconsider its block on the drugs for those newly diagnosed with the disease.

If successful, the case, brought by the drugs company Eisai and backed by the Alzheimer’s Society, could precipitate a flood of legal actions from patients refused other drugs on the NHS.

Nice decided last year that Aricept, Reminyl and Exelon – three inhibitors – should no longer be made available on the NHS.

At a cost of £2.50 a day, the drugs were too expensive when weighed against the benefits, it said.

But as the case began in London, Alzheimer’s sufferers and their carers protested outside the court, claiming the drugs had given them “a stay of execution”.

Inside the court, Mrs Justice Dobbs heard that Keith Turner, 68, a former chiropodist from Hastings, East Sussex, who was diagnosed in April 2004 and prescribed Aricept, said it had given him back his life.

His wife Lillian said it was “abhorrent and disgusting” that Nice was suggesting that carers such as her would be better off the sooner their sick relatives went into care, she said in a statement. “Even when Keith deteriorates – as we accept he ultimately will – each day we live together at home will be a day we cherish and value,” she said.

Eisai, the Japanese company that makes Aricept; Pfizer, which distributes it in Britain; and the Alzheimer’s Society are accusing Nice of making an “illegal” and “flawed” decision in deciding that those with mild Alzheimer’s be denied the drugs.

There are about 100,000 new cases diagnosed each year. They claim Nice has ignored the proven benefits of the drugs. They want Nice to be forced to reconsider its decision that the drugs be given only to moderate and severe Alzheimer’s sufferers.

David Pannick, QC, for Eisai, said: “One cannot over-emphasise the distress and damage caused to patients and their families by the disease, which progressively destroys the personality.”

Mr Pannick said Eisai and Pfizer recognised that Nice had a difficult job to perform, but it had to adopt a fair procedure, respect rights protected by the law and must not act in an irrational manner.

During the four-day hearing Nice will apparently argue that there was no unfairness.

From:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/26/nelderly226.xml

It has taken 8 months for the legal bods to get to the courts. On 11 Oct 06 Health Direct posted: National Institute for Curbing Expenditure (NICE) blights thousands of Alzheimer sufferers

NICE has been renamed by NHS doctors as the National Institute for Curbing Expenditure after it’s latest edict to ban the funding of Alzheimers drugs costing only £2.50 a day- which will effect hunderds of thousands of sufferers. “This blatant cost-cutting will rob people of priceless time” said Neil Hunt of the Alzheimer’s Society.

Help the Aged said one in five people over 80 were affected by dementia and the number of people living with the disease was set to double in a decade.

Jonathan Ellis, senior policy manager at the charity, added: “It cannot be right to allow the health of thousands of older people to deteriorate on the altar of cost.

“On the one hand, the labour government says it is committed to improving care for older people, while on the other NICE is blocking access to treatment which would help them retain their independence and dignity. This is botched policy making at its worst.”