A DECISION to make a sight-saving drug routinely available on the NHS has been welcomed as a partial victory by a Taunton campaigner.

Mark Formosa, the Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Taunton Deane, has been pressing for more than 18 months for all elderly people to be allowed the drugs Lucentis and Macugen on the NHS.

The drugs help save the sight of people suffering from wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

He took up the issue after being contacted by Taunton pensioner Patrick Reyre, a World War Two bomber pilot, who was going blind because of AMD.

Mr Reyre, now aged 86, was refused treatment by the NHS trust which runs Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton, despite being just weeks away from losing the sight in his one good eye.

The publicity generated from Mr Formosa's intervention resulted in the owner of the Daily Express newspaper meeting the £4,000 cost of Mr Reyre's treatment privately.

Now, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has approved the drug Lucentis for NHS use across the country, although it is still refusing to approve Macugen.

Mr Formosa said: "It is a disgrace that until now, drugs which can save the eyesight of people such as Mr Reyre were available on the NHS only in some part of the country but not others because it was left to the discretion of individual health trusts.

“I am delighted that Lucentis is now being made available everywhere, but at the same time I am disappointed with the refusal of NICE to approve the routine use of Macugen.

"Every day that NICE delays allowing Macugen to be prescribed is a day when another 100 people across the country start to lose their sight.”

  • SOMERSET Primary Care Trust, which makes decisions on drug availability in the county, says Lucentis and Macugen are both available in the county.

Trust spokesman Paul Courtney said both drugs had been licensed by NICE for some time, but only recently had the NICE approved Lucentis as cost effective and therefore able to be prescribed routinely.

He said that 12 months before the approval, Lucentis had been available in Somerset on a case-by-case basis and that about 200 people had benefited from it.

He added that Macugen is not approved by NICE as cost effective but Somerset PCT will consider funding it if recommended by specialists on a case-by-case basis.