Patients condemn NHS drugs decision

A patients' organisation has reacted angrily to a recommendation to restrict drugs available on the NHS for a painful rheumatic disease.

The National Ankylosing Spondylitis Society (NASS) said the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) was condemning sufferers to a "lifetime of pain and disability".

Nice has rejected the use of one drug, infliximab, for treating ankylosing spondylitis, and said patients should not be allowed to switch between two approved drugs.

Jane Skerrett, the director of NASS, said: "Nice's decision is devastating news for people living with severe ankylosing spondylitis.

"Essentially they are limiting people with AS to just one out of three potentially life changing treatments by refusing to approve one treatment and preventing people from switching to another treatment."

NASS is considering whether to appeal against Nice's decision, which came after a lengthy review of three drugs used to treat the condition: infliximab, adalimumab and etanercept.

Ms Skerrett added: "The three drugs under review from Nice are the only real treatment options for people with severe AS.

"Nice is condemning people who fail on just one of these advanced therapies to a lifetime of pain and disability."

Ankylosing spondylitis is a painful progressive rheumatic disease which mainly affects the spine but can also affect other joints, tendons and ligaments.

It usually involves pain and fatigue, and may often lead to a patient giving up work because of the severity of these symptoms: about one third of patients are unable to continue working because of their AS.

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