Press Release
MP Backs Asthma Review
Local MP Tom Clarke is supporting Asthma UK’s appeal for Xolair to be made universally available for the treatment of severe allergic asthma throughout Britain. The MP has welcomed the Scottish Medicines Consortium's decision to consider a resubmission on Xolair, a treatment for people with severe allergic asthma.
The MP said:
“The Scottish Medicines Consortium’s (SMC) decision to consider a resubmission on the use of the potentially life saving treatment Xolair for people in Scotland with severe allergic asthma, is a thoroughly welcome development. I want the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence to be fully aware of the effect of severe asthma symptoms experienced by 2.6 million people in the UK, including half a million people for whom their asthma is difficult to control even with the best medicines available. Apart for those who suffer from asthma the scale of this problem is not widely known”.
“There are currently 390,000 people in Scotland receiving treatment for asthma. For many, asthma means daily anxiety about how to avoid an asthma attack. An estimated 197,000 people in Scotland suffer from severe asthma symptoms, including 29,000 adults whose asthma is difficult to treat with existing medicines”.
The MP continued:
“I have had a look through the research on this subject and discovered about one in ten people with severe asthma symptoms say that once a week they have an asthma attack so severe they cannot speak. One in five is seriously concerned that the next asthma attack will kill them. Almost half expect no improvements in how the NHS manages their asthma. Severe asthma can cause isolation, especially in those over the age of 45. It is very difficult to control and asthma costs the NHS around £680 million a year. Caring for people who experience an asthma attack costs over 3.5 times more than for those whose asthma is well managed”.
The MP concluded:
“That is why I want National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence to accept that Xolair which is the first in a new generation of drugs for allergic asthma. The drug has been given its European license and should be available to asthma sufferers. This will reduce emergency admissions to hospital 75% of which are avoidable and reduce the number of deaths that take place from asthma in the UK as many as 90% of these are thought to be preventable”.