Drug piloted in North to beat MS is available on the NHS

NHS funding for a groundbreaking drug piloted in the North East for patients with multiple sclerosis is now mandatory.

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) has stipulated that adults with relapsing remitting MS not responding to treatment with first-line interferon injections should have access to fingolimod, an oral pill that cuts relapses by more than half compared to a standard injection.

Clinical trials that began in 2004 at the regional centre for the treatment of MS at Newcastles Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) has meant patients in the North East were among the first worldwide to try fingolimod.

Now all eligible patients should have access to the daily pill, which is proven to be twice as effective as a standard injection. Dr Martin Duddy, consultant neurologist at the RVI said: A number of patients at our centre have already started treatment with fingolimod and we anticipate these numbers will increase over the coming months.

Our patients are keen to get started on treatment and we are delighted to be one of the first centres in the UK to have our service up and running.

It is an important step forward and it gives us another option in the treatment for MS patients.

Fingolimod, which is also known by the brand name Gilenya, has taken many years to develop and 38,000 patients worldwide are already using the treatment.

In April this year, Nice approved it for use on the NHS, confirming it is a valuable, innovative and cost-effective therapy.

Following publication of final Nice guidance, the NHS is obliged to provide funding and resources for recommended treatments within three months.

Within the last month eight patients at the RVI have been prescribed fingolimod, and it is anticipated that an extra eight to 10 patients a month will be given the medication.

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Drug piloted in North to beat MS is available on the NHS