Chris Bennett: Fighting big pharma and the cost to patients

Health economics is a black art practised by big business, lawyers and politicians. It dictates terms to the health professions and controls the care they provide to patients but is seldom in their favour.

Until now. Last week’s court victory for clinical commissioning groups wanting to use Avastin over Lucentis and Eyelea for macular degeneration was a rare moment of common sense in a battle that has raged for 15 years. The drugs share the same basic chemistry but the cancer drug, Avastin, is provided in large amounts at low cost. Its ophthalmological counterparts are tiny amounts that cost a lot. It’s over 14 years since Optician first reported on ophthalmologists using Avastin off licence so it’s a fair bet the cheaper drug’s AMD benefit has been known about for very much longer.