Patients suffering from the most common cause of progressive blindness in the elderly should soon get an expensive drug on the NHS.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) has given clearance to use Lucentis for wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD). It costs about £10,700 per patient.

The advice should mean that thousands of people will get the drug, the most effective so far developed for treating trhe condition. Nice rejected an alternative medicine, Macugen.

The guidance was welcomed by the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB), which has campaigned for Lucentis.

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Steve Winyard said: “We’ve been waiting for this for over two years. It is a victory for thousands, bringing overwhelming relief to desperate people across the country.

“Finally the torment faced by elderly people forced to either spend their life savings on private treatment or go blind, is over.”

AMD is the leading cause of sight loss among the elderly in the UK and destroys the central region of the retina, the macula, leading to progressive loss of vision. It comes in two forms - wet and dry - with the dry form being far more common.

The wet type, however, is the more aggressive and accounts for around 90 per cent of the blindness caused by the condition.

In December, Nice dropped one of the most controversial aspects of its draft guidance, which suggested that patients would need to lose sight in one eye before the other could be treated.

It now recommends the use of Lucentis as long as several conditions are met in the eye to be treated. These include evidence of recent progression of the disease and no permanent structural damage to the central fovea - the most central part of the macula.

The NHS will only fund 14 injections, with the cost of any more being met by the manufacturer, in this case Novartis. This “dose-capping” scheme was recommended by Novartis and has been agreed with the Department of Health.

The cost of a single Lucentis injection is £761.20 (excluding VAT). Over two years and 14 injections, the cost will be £10,700per patient, assuming eight injections in the first year and six in the second year.

Andrew Dillon, Nice chief executive, said today: “Lucentis is an expensive drug, costing more than £10,000 for each eye treated, but that cost needs to be balanced against the likely cost savings.

“It has been estimated that the costs related to sight impairment for patients treated with Lucentis are around £8,000 cheaper than for patients who receive best supportive care over a 10 year period.

“Our guidance means that patients who are suitable for this treatment will have the same access to it, irrespective of where they live.”

There are 26,000 new cases of wet AMD in the UK each year. The condition can lead to blindness in as little as three months if left untreated.

Joan Armstrong, 82, from Wandsworth in London, whose request for funding has been refused four times by Wandsworth PCT, said today: “I’m so happy. I have been fighting to get treatment for over a year and a half, so this is the best news I’ve had since I started to lose my sight.

“What I now need is for Wandsworth PCT to contact me with my first appointment. I’ll then be able to look forward to the future.”

Dr Rafiq Hasan, director of market access and ophthalmics at Novartis, said: “We are delighted that Nice have confirmed final guidance for AMD.

“Lucentis is a treatment for a key unmet medical need and it has the potential to save many peoples’ sight.

“Rapid implementation of the guidance is now needed to ensure that patients receive the treatment they need as soon as possible.”

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