First drug to slow Alzheimer’s too costly for NHS

The first drug to slow the progression of early stage Alzheimer’s will not be available on the NHS in England because health assessment body NICE says the benefits “are too small to justify the costs”.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c75nry66y52o

What are your thoughts on this?

Reply 1

ALEreapp

I think it’s quite fair, if it costs approx 20k per patient per year and there’s 70k eligible patients that’s 1.4Bn a year for ONE drug.

The nhs also has to be efficient with how it’s spending its funds, elderly care takes up a large percentage of their budgets already. A bit like with organ donation you have to weigh up survival chances, people with Alzheimer’s tend to be older and so often won’t have decades left as opposed to someone younger with a different disease who could have decades of contributing to the economy if treated. It’s not an endless pot of money and it needs to be prioritised

Reply 2

ThatOldGuy

I am infuriated. With an aging populace, the government should negotiate a deal: Use the formula for a flat rate, and provide unlimited amounts of it to the populace. The UK government sets up a factory here, and suddenly we have more jobs as well.

It's a win-win - They get the licensing fees, we get more jobs and can help people from forgetting their kids names and having a slow descent in to Hell.

Hey! The UK could ALSO invest more in medical research it controls. AI research is going gangbusters, now. Then we control ALL the development we've had and can produce it for pennies.