大象传媒

The government has spent over 拢350m on a programme of new MS drugs, which even Britain's biggest MS charity has called a waste of money.

Eight years ago, patient groups (helped with the backing of drugs companies) pressured the government to make available a series of new drugs. At the time, the newly-formed NICE said the drugs were not value for money, but the government caved in to pressure and went against NICE's advice and made the drugs available.

There was allegedly a risk-sharing scheme in place, which meant that if the drugs turned out not to work as well as the drugs companies advised, then the firms would subsidise the cost. However, there are no signs this ever really worked, leaving the taxpayer 拢350m out of pocket, for drugs which left many patients worse off than before.