1,000 signatures reached
To: NICE AND THE NHS
Demand that NICE and the NHS licences NDT, Natural Desicated Thyroid.
We are asking NICE and the NHS to licence NDT to make it easier for people who can't tolerate Levothyroxin to obtain the only option available. By licensing NDT it means that GP's and Endocrinologists can help patients easily and quickly by providing a suitable alternative Thyroid Medication.
Why is this important?
At present there is only ONE DRUG available for the treatment of Hypothyroidism, Under Active Thyroid, Levothyroxin. There are a number of different brands and formulations of this but these are just variations of the same drug. There are a large number of people like me who cannot tolerate Levothyroxin in any form. NDT Natural Desicated Thyroid is the original medication for Hypothyroidism and was used in the NHS until 1976, when the drug companies came in with their version and the NHS stopped using NDT. Since then there are a large number of people who are finding the side effects of Levothyroxin totally unacceptable, and in severe cases such as mine impossible to tolerate. NDT is natural in that it is made from the thyroid glands of pigs or sometimes bovine, desicated thyroid glands. At the moment patients are having to suffer severe side effects as they cannot obtain NDT on the NHS yet even NICE cannot come up with any viable reason to say why they can't licence NDT especially as it has been used in the NHS before up until 1976. In an article recently NICE admitted that some people can benefit from being given NDT. Their only reason it seems is that the pig or bovine glands can vary in strength. So why are they stubbornly refusing to licence NDT, maybe something to do with how cheaply they can buy Levothyroxin approximately £2 Per patient per month. NDT isn't hugely expensive, but it is more than that. Without Thyroid Medication patients can die, that is a fact, once the thyroid is no longer producing thyroxin they need medication in order to survive. There are numerous people in this situation who are having to buy NDT via the internet from dubious sources abroad in order to stay alive. The only other alternative is to try and find a Private GP who will prescribe NDT the cost of this is well over £100 including the consultation which means for a lot of people it's impossible. Please help us force the NHS to do the decent thing and licence NDT. THIS WILL MAKE LIFE EASIER FOR SO MANY PEOPLE AND SAVE LIVES. IT SHOULDN'T BE IN THIS DAY AND AGE THAT PATIENTS ARE LEFT IN AWFUL CIRCUMSTANCES SUFFERING SEVERE SIDE EFFECTS AND RISKING DEATH IN ORDER TO SAVE WHAT IS JUST A FEW POUNDS. PLEASE HELP US BY SIGNING THIS PETITION.
