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UK regulatory agency delays AMD treatment

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While the National Institute for Clinical Excellence in England has ruled photodynamic therapy should be made available to people with wet age-related macular degeneration, the Department of Health has delayed its availability, according to BBC News.

Once a guidance is issued by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), funding and availability is to be implemented within 3 months, the news report states. However, England’s National Health Service received contradictory guidance stating photodynamic therapy (PDT) would not have to be funded for an additional 9 months. Government officials have claimed additional centers are needed to treat affected patients.

“Every year 21,000 people in the U.K. develop wet age-related macular degeneration and NICE estimates that 7,500 or these will be suitable for PDT treatment,” Steve Winyard, chair of the AMD Alliance UK, told BBC.

PDT with Visudyne (Novartis Ophthalmics) was approved in the U.K. in 2000, but has not been widely distributed or available because the NHS had been waiting for the NICE guidance, BBC reported.