The bad news — as Peter notes — is that Avastin and Erbitux will not be made available to colon cancer patients in the UK because it doesn’t really prolong life. That is also what NICE said about Taxol, Herceptin and Gleevec by the way, all of which have been shown to increase survival and prolong life. The good news is, since NICE will not cover Aricept or other drugs for Alzheimer’s people with AD and colon cancer won’t know they are being denied Avastin and Erbitux.
Meanwhile, Madonna has told the Blair government that it should use mystical waters to clean up radioactive pollution. According to the Times of London she and husband Guy Ritchie “have been lobbying the government and nuclear industry over a scheme to clean up radioactive waste with a supposedly magic Kabbalah fluid.” The plan, just recently revealed, hinged on a “mystical” liquid that she says neutralized the radiation in a Ukrainian lake. Madonna, who studies Kabbalah, insists that the stuff is for real. The better news? NICE has already approved it for reimbursement because it’s cheap.
