NICE Fails To Act On Risk Of Fracture, Says Osteoporosis Charity, UK

Main Category: Bones / Orthopaedics
Article Date: 08 Jul 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) will publish their latest appraisal of osteoporosis drugs which, according to the National Osteoporosis Society has failed to overcome the problems that resulted in a successful appeal last year.

Almost a year to the day that the charity launched an appeal against proposed guidelines, NICE have published a new set of guidance which, despite the inclusion of mandatory alternative treatments, makes it even harder than before for patients to fulfil the complex criteria which will enable them to access appropriate treatment

Nick Rijke, Public and External Affairs Director for the National Osteoporosis Society, commented,

"This appraisal is extremely disappointing. We had hoped for real progress after our successful appeal against their previous drug appraisal. But NICE have now published something that does not overcome the shortcomings of their previous work - if anything this makes things worse for many thousands of patients.

"The crux of the issue is that roughly a quarter of patients cannot take generic alendronate. Under these NICE recommendations, those patients would have to get considerably worse before they would be entitled to an alternative treatment. For those patients it is hard to see why £7 a week is too much to ask. Given the immense suffering and huge financial costs caused by hip fractures that effective treatment could prevent, the logical and moral imperative is to treat individuals with a drug that works."

The National Osteoporosis Society will consult fully with its stakeholders before any decision is made regarding the next stage of the process.

Notes

One in two women and one in five men over 50 will break a bone, mainly as a result of osteoporosis.

More than a thousand people every month die as a result of hip fractures.

The NHS spends almost £2billion a year treating osteoporotic fractures.

Broken hips cost hospitals an estimated £12,000 per incidence.

The National Osteoporosis Society is the only UK wide charity dedicated to improving the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of osteoporosis.

Thousands of National Osteoporosis Society members wrote to their parliamentary representatives to highlight the shortfalls in NICE's recommendations and in October 2007, delivered a petition with almost 25,000 signatures to 10 Downing Street.

The National Osteoporosis Society, The Society for Endocrinology, The British Society for Rheumatology and the Bone Research Society jointly appealed NICE guidance last year.

National Osteoporosis Society