Most PCTs not funding Pfizer’s Macugen
pharmafile | October 26, 2006 | News story | |
Patients with wet, age-related macular degeneration are being denied access to the first of a new class of treatment for the disease, according to a new report.
AMD Alliance UK found 90% of the 54 PCTs it surveyed have not yet provided any funding for Pfizer's Macugen and the remainder are only doing so on a limited basis.
Wet AMD is the leading cause of blindness and up to 26,000 people in the UK could benefit from Macugen, according to AMD Alliance UK, which says PCTs are condemning 50 people a day to blindness by not funding the treatment.
Its report found the lack of funding arose because PCTs were waiting for NICE guidance, there were weaknesses in their horizon scanning and financial planning, and they even were hoping a cheaper option might become available.
Macugen became the first anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) treatment on the UK market after it was approved by European regulators in February and then launched in May this year. It is expected to be joined in early 2007 by a second anti-VEGF treatment – Novartis' Lucentis (ranibizumab).
The previous treatment for wet AMD was photodynamic therapy with Novartis' Visudyne, but this can only be used to treat 7,000 people in the UK each year.
With the advent of anti-VEGF treatments, patient numbers are expected to rise to 26,000 and Macugen's manufacturer, Pfizer, met with the National Prescribing Centre at the beginning of 2005 to allow commissioners sufficient time to budget for 2006/7
"With proper horizon scanning, PCTs should have realised they would face a high demand for funding of the new treatments," the report noted.
NICE is due to appraise Macugen and Lucentis in August 2007, but reports that another anti-VEGF treatment, the cancer drug Avastin (bevacizumab), could be used to treat wet AMD and be cheaper than Macugen have also encouraged PCTs to hold off funding it.
Avastin and Lucentis were both developed by Genentech and were derived from the same anti-VEGF mouse monoclonal antibody. The company has expressed concerns that differences between the two drugs will prevent Avastin from being an effective wet AMD treatment.
Commenting on the Alliance's report Winfried Amoaku, consultant ophthalmologist at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "While we all appreciate the current funding situation, AMD is a major public health issue. The earlier it is detected and treated, the more chance there is of preserving sight.
"With current figures estimating that blindness costs the UK a staggering £5 billion a year, we really need to do more to ensure patients have access to appropriate treatment sooner rather than later."
AMD Alliance UK carried out the survey in September/October after it became concerned that patients did not have access to treatment. The coalition brings together several patient groups and charities including the Royal National Institute of the Blind, Age Concern England and the Macular Disease Society.
