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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: MS patients to be denied drug
Leicester Mercury Thursday 15 Mar 2012 They say Sativex, a cannabis-based drug which is sprayed under the tongue to help improve muscle tone and relieve painful spasms in sufferers, is "not cost effective" enough to be routinely prescribed. Patients said it is a devastating blow and campaigners described it a "national disgrace" that it is MS sufferers in England are among the least likely in Europe to get the treatment, which costs £4,250 per patient a year. In a report to directors of the primary care trusts (PCTs) of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, Dr Tim Daniel, a consultant in public health medicine, recommends the drug should be not be routinely funded by the NHS, in line with a policy drawn up for the East Midlands. He said: "It was felt unlikely to be cost effective" and clinical benefit was "marginal." The PCTs said they could not reveal how many Leicestershire patients have been prescribed the drug. They told the Mercury it "is small enough to risk identifying those patients." Jane Tindle, 51, from Barrow Upon Soar, is devastated at the recommendation. She said: "I have been asking for this drug for years. It is not one that will be suitable for everyone with MS but I think I am one of them. "I have almost exhausted all the other drug options and would like to be able to try this drug. "I understand that you can tell within a few weeks if it is working which is why people should be able to have it." Jane, who was diagnosed with MS 26 years ago, added: "It is upsetting that a more useful and a relevant drug has been developed and when it comes down to it, it is all about money and were you live – a postcode lottery." The drug, which was licensed in the UK in 2012, has not yet been reviewed by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence which decides which medicines should be made available on the NHS. Nick Rijke, director of policy and research at the MS Society, said: "This decision of the PCTs will condemn people with MS in the East Midlands to a life unnecessarily limited by spasticity – a potentially devastating and distressing symptom of the condition. "For years people with MS were warned that using cannabis to reduce their symptoms could lead to their prosecution. Now a legal, safe and effective cannabis-based treatment is available, yet because NICE have not reviewed it people are increasingly being told that they can't have it through the NHS. "It's a national disgrace that people with MS in the UK are already amongst the least likely in Europe to have access to MS drugs. "This news will only deepen the divide further." A spokesman for the PCTs said that Sativex will not be withdrawn from patients already on the treatment, but other options should be considered at routine review. He added that a doctors could apply for special funding for the drug if he felt there were "grounds of clinical exceptionality." http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/MS-patients-denied-drug/story-15519491-detail/story.html
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