NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH AND CLINICAL EXCELLENCE RULING ON AZACITIDINE

That this House notes that patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) suffer from chronic and severe fatigue and are at risk of progressing to a more aggressive form of leukaemia, acute myeloid leukaemia; observes that the drug azacitidine is the first and only licensed drug available specifically to treat MDS and has the ability both to slow the progress of the disease and immeasurably improve patients' quality of life; is disappointed at the recent National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommendation that azacitidine is not sufficiently cost-effective; recognises that as few as 700 patients would require the drug each year, which translates to a diminutive portion of the NHS budget; and calls on NICE to reconsider its recommendation on use of the drug which is already widely available in other Western European and North American countries.