A drug that costs up to £10 million per patient will be made available on the NHS after the treatments watchdog approved its most expensive medicine.
Eculizumab, also known as Soliris, can be the difference between life and death for about 200 people with a rare kidney condition and will cost the NHS up to £82 million a year.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) said that the drug offered gains “of a magnitude that is rarely seen for any new drug treatment”, allowing people to live independently for decades.
The adviser approved the drug through a process for ultra-rare conditions, which does not involve assessment by its standard value-for-money formula. NICE says that it is unfair to apply normal cost standards