Alimera Sciences, Inc., (NASDAQ: ALIM) (Alimera), a biopharmaceutical company that specializes in the research, development and commercialization of prescription ophthalmic pharmaceuticals, today announced that ILUVIEN®, the first sustained release pharmaceutical product for the treatment of chronic diabetic macular edema (DME), is now available in the United Kingdom.
In addition, Alimera Sciences has recently submitted a simple Patient Access Scheme (PAS) to the United Kingdom's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for consideration of the guidance under rapid review. The NICE Appraisal Committee will assess the likely impact of the ILUVIEN PAS and determine whether an update to NICE's previously issued final guidance is warranted. If the PAS is accepted by NICE, it is anticipated that ILUVIEN would be funded for chronic DME patients in England and Wales through the National Health Service (NHS).
"I am pleased to be able to finally offer this new sustained release treatment to my private pay and privately insured patients, who suffer from vision impairment associated with chronic DME," said Simon Horgan, FRCS , FRCOphth, consultant ophthalmic surgeon at St. George's Hospital, Tooting, and Moorfields Eye Hospital, London. "ILUVIEN is a welcome option for DME patients, who no longer respond to conventional therapies and who are facing progression to blindness. I am hoping that in the near future many more patients who are likely to benefit from this treatment will be offered ILUVIEN."
The NICE Appraisal Committee is scheduled to meet on May 15, 2013 to discuss the ILUVIEN PAS submission with an expected 30-day review period to follow.
"We are pleased that ILUVIEN is now available in the U.K.," said Dan Myers , president and chief executive officer, Alimera Sciences. "We continue to work with NICE and are hopeful that our simple Patient Access Scheme will make ILUVIEN available to a larger group of chronic DME patients in England and Wales, who are considered insufficiently responsive to available therapies."
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