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The drug watchdog for England and Wales is delivering an "early Christmas present" for the UK’s many residents living with the risk of blindness.

After receiving 13,000 complaints, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is now recommending that NHS patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are eligible for 14 injections of Lucentis per eye.

Draft recommendations published in June proposed denying treatment to 80 per cent of patients with the condition, which is the UK’s leading cause of blindness.

Steve Winyard, head of campaigns at the Royal National Institute of Blind people (RNIB) remarked that "thousands of people" could soon have their sight saved.

"NICE has given thousands of people the best Christmas present they could wish for - hope that their sight might be saved," he stated.

Mr Winyard continued: "26,000 people in the UK develop wet-AMD each year and there are desperate people across the country today being denied drugs that could stop them from going blind."

Macugen, a second sight-saving drug under consideration, is yet to be recommended for use on the NHS.

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This entry was posted on Friday, December 14th, 2007 at 3:04 pm and is filed under Medical Developments and treatments.