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The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) yesterday rejected recommending the prescribing of the first oral pill for sufferers of multiple sclerosis in Scotland.

The SMC said that, while the manufacturers of Gilenya, had provided evidence about it helping to reduce relapse rates, they had not compared it with another drug commonly used in Scotland.

It added that evidence showed that starting treatment with Fingolimod could cause a short-term decrease in heart rate and swelling of the centre of the retina inside the eye, and that about half the patients developed infections. The SMC concluded that it did not consider the drug to be “value for money” for the NHS in Scotland.

Novartis launched Fingolimod in the UK in April 2011, but the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommended in December that Fingolimod was not a cost effective treatment for the NHS in England and Wales to provide.... Read More - http://www.msrc.co.uk/index.cfm/fuseact ... ageid/1309

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