MS drug deal condemned as 'costly failure'

The NHS could have saved 250m if the scheme had been properly assessed after two years, while the money could have been better spent on other treatments, they said.

The programme was set up between the Government and drug firms after the the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) deemed a set of MS medicines too expensive and questioned their effectiveness.

Today, writing online in the British Medical Journal, experts led by Professor Christopher McCabe, a health economist at the University of Leeds, questioned a scientific group advising Ministers on the scheme.