Welcome for fast track remedy announcement

Andrew George, the Liberal Democrat MP who has led campaigns against the Government on Health policy, has welcomed the announcement by Government today that it will give patients faster access to promising drugs which could save lives or suppress the advance of degenerative diseases and conditions.

Mr George, who is a member of the Health Select Committee, had already called upon the Health Secretary to alter the licensing system to bring forward promising drugs to help patients with the most debilitating conditions.

Mr George said:

“For those who have life limiting conditions or whose degenerative condition is advancing quickly, giving them early accesses to a drug which may save them or which could halt or slow down the advance of the disease is far better than keeping them waiting to go through years of additional box ticking exercises.

“Of course there needs to be a risk assessment but it’s no good patting yourself on the back for being ultra precautionary if patients who could have benefitted are dead or crippled because they had to wait. There has to be a reasonable balance and I think that the Government has got this one about right.”