Vince Cable

Attempts to help chronic leukaemia sufferer Jed Alexander have hit a major obstacle as the drug regulator NICE has turned down appeals to authorise life saving drugs on the NHS.

Jed was one of a small number - a few hundred at most - with a life threatening disease that has proved immune to treatment using existing drugs. His consultant, Professor Jane Apperley at Imperial College believes that Jed could be saved using a new generation of drugs, Dasatinib and Nilotnib, which are already available in Scotland, Wales and overseas. NICE have taken the view that for an estimated £30,000 a case of treatment, for uncertain outcomes, was too much.

Vince Cable said:

"I understand that life and death decisions of this kind are harrowing and it is right that they should be made on the basis of calm rational judgements rather than emotion or political pressure. Nonetheless, the consultant has made a powerful case on clinical grounds that the treatment should be given. And England is the only country in Europe and the rest of the developed world refusing it. I have put a case to the NHS Richmond that they should treat this as a special case based on the consultant's strong recommendation. There is still hope."