NICE faces legal challenge over restriction on dementia drugs

doi:10.1136/bmj.39041.497315.DB

BMJ 2006;333:1085 (25 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.39041.497315.DB

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NICE faces legal challenge over restriction on dementia drugs

Clare Dyer, legal correspondent

¹ BMJ

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The National Institute for Health and ClinicalExcellence (NICE), the body that decides what treatments aresupplied on the NHS in England and Wales, is facing a High Courtchallenge to its decision to restrict the use of drugs for Alzheimer'sdisease.

NICE rejected an appeal by drug companies inOctober over its guidance stating that patients with early orlate stage Alzheimer's disease should not have access to donepezil(Aricept), galantamine (Reminyl), or rivastigmine (Exelon) (BMJ2006;333:165).

The US drug company Pfizer and a Japanese biotechnologycompany, Eisai, announced last week that they would seek a judicialreview of the process NICE followed in making its decision.The British company Shire later said it would join the legalchallenge as an interested party.

Eisai, the licence holder of donepezil, andPfizer, its co-promotion partner, said a letter had gone toNICE saying that the companies planned to apply . . . [Full text of this article]

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Rapid Responses:

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Ethical Screening?: David Iles
bmj.com, 25 Nov 2006 [Full text]
Dilemnas in clinical practice: Dr. Adil Y. Kadri
bmj.com, 2 Dec 2006 [Full text]
NICE should be answerable to the British government - to hell with the pharmaceutical giants: Anton E Joseph
bmj.com, 6 Dec 2006 [Full text]
Such NICE people: James W Hawkins
bmj.com, 13 Dec 2006 [Full text]