Make cancer and Aids wonderdrug available on NHS, ministers told

Published on Monday 23 November 2009 21:58

A DRUG that helps treat auto-immune diseases as well as HIV/Aids and cancer should be readily available on the NHS, according to a new petition that is to go before the Scottish Parliament.

GPs and health boards in Scotland are currently reluctant to prescribe Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) despite its proven benefits according to Robert Thomson, whose most severe symptoms of Crohn's disease have been successfully treated by the drug.

Mr Thomson, who is forced to buy the drug privately, will next week bring a petition before the Scottish Parliament's petition's committee calling for LDN to be made widely available and its benefits properly publicised.

"Too many GPs in Scotland are entirely unaware of the drug's benefits and when they are made aware of it they are reluctant to prescribe LDN, a position I and the 10,000 people who have signed our petition would like to see changed," said Mr Thomson, 39, an IT consultant from Glasgow. Naltrexone was initially developed to treat drug addicts by briefly obstructing the effects of the brain endorphins, our natural painkillers, and so blocking their response to drugs such as heroin and morphine. However, it was discovered that this had the effect of stimulating an increased production of these same endorphins which, in turn, stimulates the immune system.

This has reduced the activity of MS, while other doctors have used it to treat fertility problems as well as cancer and HIV/Aids.

In America in 1981, Dr Ian Zagon conducted research and published results on the use of LDN to retard tumour growth, while four years later, Dr Bernard Bihari discovered that low doses of LDN had a positive effect on the immune system.

Yet the reason LDN is not better known is that it is out of patent and, as no pharmaceutical company holds the exclusive manufacturing rights, there is no-one to fund the expensive clinical trials, then promote the drug and its profitable sales.

There is no legal impediment to any NHS GP prescribing LDN yet most are reluctant to do so, citing the lack of clinical trials and the fact that, under the current law, if a patient chose to sue and won then the doctor would be liable along with the dispensing pharmacist.

Mr Thomson said LDN is cheap compared to other more widely available drugs. He pays 25 per month for his supplies.

Last night Frank McAveety, convener of the petitions committee, said: "We will be examining this petition and will call on the health department and ministers about the issue."