Drug trial plan offers hope to MS sufferers

Hope could be offered to multiple sclerosis sufferers after the Government revealed it may carry out clinical trials on 10,000 patients of the expensive drug, beta interferon.

The Department of Health has entered negotiations with drugs companies to arrange funding for trials, in which the drug could be offered to relapsing and remitting patients.

The move comes despite a decision by the the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) that the drug is not cost-effective and should not be prescribed for new patients. Treatment using the drug costs between £7,500 and £10,000 a year per patient.

During the proposed trials in England and Wales, assessments would be made as to whether the drug was working. A spokesman for the Department of Health said last night: "If it was working, payments would continue. If not, payments to manufacturers would be reduced on a sliding scale."

Beta interferon does not cure MS but it can reduce the number and severity of relapses. In the UK, about 2 to 3 per cent of patients, or 2,000 people, receive the drug, compared with 12 to 15 per cent in other European countries. In Denmark, the figure is about 20 per cent.

The Department of Health has confirmed that it is in discussions with four manufacturers of beta interferon, as well as other stakeholders.

A statement released by the department said last night: "We have yet to reach an agreement and discussions continue, but we believe it should be possible to come to a constructive arrangement."

Of 85,000 people in the UK with MS, the Multiple Sclerosis Society claims 10,000 would benefit from the drug.

Publication of Nice's provisional ruling in August had been awaited for several months.

Meanwhile a new drug undergoing patient trials in the UK could provide the world's first treatment for the most devastating form of multiple sclerosis. Currently there is no treatment available for patients with primary progressive MS. Unlike the relapsing form, it causes continuous and increasingly more crippling disability. The drug being tested, Copaxone, was introduced in December last year as an alternative to beta interferon.

Nothing yet exists which can cure any form of MS. Although beta interferon can help relapsing patients it has no effect against the primary progressive disease. Copaxone, however, has been shown in studies on mice to slow down the rate of deterioration in progressive MS.