The cannabis-based remedy, Sativex, will now be accessible by way of NHS prescription in Scotland, to deal with spasticity in MS sufferers.
The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) introduced on Monday 12 September, that Sativex could be accessible for grownup NHS sufferers who expertise reasonable to extreme spasticity as a result of a number of sclerosis (MS), the place different remedies haven’t labored.
Till now, Sativex has been accepted to be used on the NHS in England, Wales and Northern Eire, however not in Scotland. Though a restricted variety of folks have been capable of entry it by way of the Peer Accredited Medical System (PACS) Tier 2 particular person affected person remedy request course of.
Sativex, which is run by way of a mouth spray, incorporates the cannabinoids CBD and THC.
It’s at the moment the one drug within the UK with a licence to deal with the muscle stiffness and spasms – also referred to as spasticity – attributable to MS.
Over 130,000 folks reside with MS within the UK, a long-term situation which impacts the mind and spinal wire, inflicting a variety of potential signs, together with issues with imaginative and prescient, arm or leg motion, sensation or steadiness.
Spasticity can have an effect on between 40 – 80 per cent of individuals with MS in some unspecified time in the future and may be painful and disabling.
Final yr a report by the MS Society highlighted that hundreds of sufferers have been being denied entry to Sativex, regardless of it being accepted to be used on the NHS within the majority of the UK.
The findings – printed within the report, Approved but Denied: Access to Sativex to treat MS related spasticity in England – revealed that lower than half of the Medical Commissioning Teams in England are funding Sativex.
As a part of the marketing campaign, the charity additionally referred to as on Jazz Prescribed drugs (previously GW Pharma) the producer of Sativex, to make a submission to the Scottish Medicines Consortium for the approval of the medication on the NHS in Scotland.
Bosses welcomed the most recent choice, in an announcement on the MS Society web site.
Morna Simpkins, Scotland director of the MS Society, commented: “We welcome the SMC’s choice. Sativex has been confirmed to alleviate muscle spasms and their related ache, resulting in improved mobility, higher sleep patterns and a greater high quality of life for the individual residing with MS and their companion, household and family members.
“We’ll proceed to work with the SMC, NHS Scotland, particular person well being boards and neurologists to verify Sativex rapidly turns into accessible to everybody all through Scotland whose life may very well be considerably improved by taking it.”