Only one in 10 people with multiple sclerosis are being treated with key drug, government admits

Only around one in 10 of those who are eligible for a new drug to treat multiple sclerosis are getting it, even though it was approved a year ago for use in the NHS, the Guardian has been told. Natalizumab, which goes by the brand name Tysabri, is the first drug that the National Institute for Clinical Excellence has approved for multiple sclerosis. MS is a disease of the central nervous system which can progress from tingling and numbness of the limbs to blindness and paralysis. There is no cure, but the drug slows the progression of the disease in some of the most severe cases. But in an answer to a parliamentary question put by the Liberal Democrat MP Paul Burstow, the government said between 100 and 300 people were getting the drug as of March this year, out of a possible 2,000 who could benefit from it. "It...

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