Pfizer and Eisai NICE drug ruling criticised

Discworld novelist Terry Pratchett has criticised the National Institute of Clinical Health and Excellence (NICE) for its decision to limit the use of Aricept (donepezil Hcl).

Speaking to BBC One’s Panorama programme, the writer attacked the decision from the institute that the drug is not cost-effective enough to be prescribed on the NHS for patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

Pratchett himself was diagnosed with an early-onset form of the disease known as PCA in December 2007.

The author purchases his own supply of the Pfizer and Eisai drug, which costs around £2.50 a day, but claims it is a complicated process, with it probably being easier to buy illegal substances from street drug dealers.

“I feel particularly angry on behalf of early-onset patients because it feels like an insult and the younger you are the more insulting it is,” he said.

He added many people with early-onset Alzheimer’s have dependants and claimed cancer patients would not be denied medication in similar circumstances.

In response to the show which aired last night, the Alzheimer’s Society expressed its support for Pratchett, branding the NICE decision to limit the use of the drugs as an “absolute disgrace”.