Alzheimer's sufferers lose £500,000 drug cash in court fight

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, which has ruled that dementia drugs costing £2.50 a day are too expensive, has admitted a legal challenge could cost it more than £100,000.

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But if the rationing watchdog loses a High Court case, the bill would rise to £500,000 because it may be made to pay the other parties' costs.

That would be enough for a year's supply of the drugs for all 50,000 Alzheimer's patients who would benefit from them.

Geoff Martin, from the pressure group Health Emergency, said: "It is breathtaking that health chiefs can decide to spend taxpayers' money on fighting legal cases at a time when the NHS is so desperately short of cash."

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb said yesterday: "This is a crazy waste of money which could be spent ensuring quicker access to drugs. For many sufferers and their carers these drugs are a lifeline."

The money for a legal bill would come out of NICE's budget, which could delay the approval of vital medicines for use in the Health Service.

Drugs to be appraised by the watchdog include Tykerb, which can give precious extra months of life to those in the late stages of breast cancer.

NICE has ruled that three Alzheimer's drugs - Aricept, Exelon and Reminyl - will only be available on the NHS to patients with moderate symptoms. A fourth, Ebixa, is banned for all.

The Alzheimer's Society says the restrictions will mean patients are denied drugs at the time they could most benefit from them.

The Daily Mail is running a campaign to help the charity mount a High Court challenge to overturn NICE's decision. The drug companies Eisai and Pfizer are also challenging the restrictions but are not contributing to the society's legal costs.

If the case goes to court, NICE expects to spend more than "100,000. Should it lose, and be ordered to pay all the other parties' costs, the total bill could be "500,000. Appealing against the decision would be even more expensive.

NICE said its legal bills would have to be paid from its "31.3million annual budget, which comes from the Department of Health. It could also not guarantee that its appraisal of other drugs would be unaffected.

Chief executive Andrew Dillon said: "We will have to fund our own legal costs, which will require us to use money that would otherwise have been invested in the work we do to support patients and health professionals to get the most out of the resources available to the NHS."