A leading consultant ophthalmic surgeon has called for the incoming government to allow the use of Avastin, a much cheaper age-related macular degeneration (AMD)drug than Lucentis, on the NHS.
Mr Mike Lavin, a surgeon at the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital with a private practice, told Optician: 'Gordon Brown and Patricia Hewitt blocked NHS access to both Avastin and Lucentis in 2006, 2007 and 2008, despite the fact that these drugs were widely available in other countries for the treatment of macular disease.
'In the future we need to ensure less political interference and more freedom for doctors to use the best treatments on the basis of scientific evidence regarding benefit, safety and relative cost.'
The Department of Health has asked NICE to consider assessing the use of Avastin, which is currently licensed in the treatment of bowel cancer, for the treatment of wet AMD.
Explaining the dilemma for NICE in assessing Avastin Lavin said: 'NICE cannot examine Avastin without permission from the drug owner, which makes both Avastin and Lucentis, so it's not in their interest to let NICE look at Avastin for this issue and NICE can do nothing about that.'
Revealing how much money is at stake over the issue, Lavin said that in the US a single dose of Avastin for injection into the eye costs around $20, whereas Lucentis was first priced at £1,000 per injection in the UK and now costs around £700 per injection.
Rejecting the argument that Avastin should not be used in the eye as it is only licensed for the treatment of bowel cancer, Lavin said: 'The NHS uses other licensed drugs off label, aspirin is licensed for pain relief but is widely used off label for the treatment of heart disease.
'Avastin has been used in more patients worldwide than Lucentis. It has been used in higher doses than Lucentis and is used in the eye at a dose that is 0.3 per cent of the licensed dose. Whereas Lucentis has never been given outside the human eye into the whole body, it is used at 100 per cent of the licensed dose and nobody knows what it does to the whole body. For all these reasons doctors should be more comfortable using Avastin than Lucentis.'
Detailing the changes he would like to see implemented by the next government, Lavin said: 'I would like doctors to be free to choose the right drug licensed or not. That's always been the basis of medicine, you choose the best drug for the patient. In this issue there's been excessive government interference.'