Eisai to appeal against Alzheimer’s court ruling

pharmafile | October 3, 2007 | News story | |  Alzheimer's, Eisai, NICE 

Eisai and Pfizer are to try once again to reverse NICE restrictions on Alzheimer’s drugs by appealing against the recent court ruling.

In August, the companies were granted a High Court judicial review into NICE’s decision-making process on the drugs, but the judge ruled in favour of NICE, saying it had not acted unfairly or irrationally.

The judge did rule that NICE had discriminated against certain minorities, but this decision did not alter the restrictions on prescribing which NICE had imposed.

Now Eisai and Pfizer have applied for permission to appeal the court’s decision, and if granted, it could potentially lead to NICE being forced to review once again its ruling on the drugs. But the request for an appeal could be turned down, or if granted, the appeal judge could arrive at the same conclusion as before.

Eisai and Pfizer, which together market the biggest selling Alzheimer’s drug Aricept, want to challenge NICE on procedural fairness, their core complaint relating to what they say is NICE’s refusal to disclose all details relating to its cost-effectiveness model.

Dr Paul Hooper, managing director of Eisai said: “We are sad that we are having to take this further action. We maintain our belief that NICE should be fully transparent in the way in which they reach their decisions surrounding the cost effectiveness of medicines.”

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