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 | | Friday, 10 May, 2002, 14:17 GMT 15:17 UK Hepatitis drug wins approval  About 60,000 people in Scotland have liver disease A potentially life-saving treatment for a type of liver disease has been approved for use on the NHS in Scotland. The move has been welcomed by the British Liver Trust but it is now calling for the weekly injections to be made available in England and Wales as well. The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has concluded that pegylated interferon alfa-2b is "an appropriate treatment for the management of adult patients with chronic hepatitis C". It will still be up to individual NHS boards to decide whether they can afford to pay for the drug. The trust's chief executive, Nigel Hughes, said: "We now have a situation where patients in England and Wales will be less likely to receive this treatment... simply because NICE [National Institute for Clinical Excellence] has yet to make a decision. "The message to patients seems to be - move to Scotland if you have hepatitis C." 'Grave threat' The treatment is described as "the most advanced available for patients with hepatitis C". Unlike unlike hepatitis A and B, there is no vaccine for the C strain of the disease. The SMC provides advice to the NHS in Scotland about new medicines, while NICE is the body in England and Wales which assesses the clinical and cost effectiveness of new and existing health treatments.
Some 60,000 people in Scotland suffer from liver disease. In trials, pegylated interferon alfa-2b can clear the hepatitis C virus from between 54% and 61% of patients when combined with another drug, ribavirin. Mr Hughes said of the Scottish decision: "This throws the ball firmly into NICE's court to ensure patients in England and Wales receive the same standard of treatment in a disease area which presents a grave threat to public health. "The NHS needs a rapid development of liver services if we are to manage this epidemic. "The Scottish Medicines Consortium decision is a very positive step in that process." Year-long appraisal A spokeswoman for NICE said the Department of Health had not referred the drug to it for consideration and therefore it was not on its work programme. If it was, a technological appraisal, which is necessary as part of the assessment, would be have to be undertaken and these take about a year to complete. There was likely to be more time to add on because the drug would have to take its place in NICE's work priorities, she said. But the spokeswoman pointed out that pegylated interferon alfa-2b had already been licensed for use in the UK and it was not the case that it could not be used in England and Wales. Under these circumstances, health boards would have to assess the evidence themselves and make their own decisions on whether or not to spend money on making it available, she added. | | See also:  Internet links: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Top Scotland stories now:  Links to more Scotland stories are at the foot of the page. | |||||||||||||||||||
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