NICE AND AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION

That this House notes that there are 26,000 new cases of age-related macular degeneration each year in Britain and that around 19,000 people go blind as a result of this treatable condition each year; welcomes the decision by the Scottish Medicines Consortium to make both Macugen and Lucentis available in Scotland; expresses grave concern at the draft guidance issued by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommending that Macugen is not made available and that Lucentis is only made available once the condition has afflicted both eyes; and calls on NICE to bear in mind the consequences of refusing treatment to patients who are needlessly going blind and therefore urgently to reconsider its decision.