THE recommendation to deny drugs which could help multiple sclerosis sufferers has been slammed.

Belinda Peddle, secretary of the High Wycombe branch of the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society, furiously rejected a ruling that beta-interferon was neither clinically or cost effective.

The provisional ruling by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE), which advises the government on NHS treatment, acknowledged sufferers on the drug would suffer loss of well-being if treatment was withdrawn.

Mrs Peddle said: "I'm so angry that they can sit there and say, 'You can't have the drugs, it's too expensive,' and deny people a better quality of life.

"The drug is not a cure but it halts MS and reduces the number of relapses and just makes their life much better."

NICE was accused of narrow-mindedness in its ruling that the drug was not cost-effective.

Mrs Peddle said: "If they don't give the drugs, people have more relapses so they're in hospital and need more home care and it costs industry as well because they can't work."

She added: "We've pointed this out to them time and time again but they're just looking at the cost of prescriptions."

There are around 80,000 MS sufferers in Britain and only two or three per cent are prescribed the drug.

Mrs Peddle said this number was too small with other European countries treating a higher percentage of patients.

She said: "Every European country prescribes it but not Britain. We're at the same level as Turkey and Britain is supposed to be a rich country."

Mrs Peddle said sufferers could not afford the £8,000 a year to pay privately for beta-interferon.