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A drug that can slow the debilitating symptoms of Alzheimer’s has been approved by the medicines regulator.

In an unusual double-header assessment by authorities, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has said the drug lecanemab is safe and effective enough for doctors to prescribe in Britain, but a separate NHS watchdog has ruled that it’s not cost-effective and won’t be available.

The decision by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) means that the first drug to show an effect in Alzheimer’s will only be available privately.

In the US the treatment costs £20,000 a year.

A key clinical trial has shown lecanemab can slow the decline in memory and mental agility by 27% in patients with mild Alzheimer’s.

But it can also cause swelling and bleeding in the brain of some patients.

NICE heard evidence it slows down progression of the disease by between four and six months but concluded that the costs of providing the treatment, including fortnightly infusions in hospital and intensive monitoring for side effects, combined with the relatively small benefits it provides to patients, means it cannot be considered good value for the taxpayer.

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Dr Samantha Roberts, chief executive of NICE, said: “This is a new and emerging field of medicine which will no doubt develop rapidly.

“However, the reality is that the benefits this first treatment provides are just too small to justify the significant cost to the NHS. It is an intensive treatment to give to patients involving a hospital visit every two weeks with skilled staff needed to monitor them for signs of serious side effects, plus the cost of purchasing the drug.

“Our independent committee has rigorously evaluated the available evidence, including the benefit for carers but NICE must only recommend treatments that offer good value to the taxpayer.”

The MHRA decision would not apply in Northern Ireland, which has a separate process.

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From November 2022: Inside a lab working on Alzheimer’s treatment

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While US authorities have approved the drug, the EU’s medical regulator rejected a licence because it considered the benefits too small to justify the risks.

According to results of the clinical trial published two years ago, the drug cleared clumps of a protein called amyloid – thought to be a key cause of the most common form of dementia – from patients’ brains.

It removed so much of the amyloid protein that the patients wouldn’t have had enough evidence of Alzheimer’s disease on their brain scans to actually qualify for entry to the trial.

The study strongly suggests the drug only starts to have a clinical effect once amyloid is reduced to low levels in the brain.

Results after 12 months of treatment suggested it was ineffective – but after 18 months, the effect was significant.

Doctors were optimistic at the time that continued treatment would lead to even better results.

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Zack Polanski and Nigel Farage are polar opposites in politics, but have one thing in common

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Zack Polanski and Nigel Farage are polar opposites in politics, but have one thing in common

Zack Polanski and Nigel Farage might be polar opposites when it comes to politics – but they do have one thing in common.

The pair are both cutting through in a changing media landscape when attention is scarce and trust in mainstream politics is scarcer still.

For Farage, the Reform UK leader, momentum has been building since he won a seat at the general election last year and he continues to top the polls.

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Badenoch doesn’t want to talk about Farage

But in the six weeks since Polanski became leader of the Greens, membership has doubled, they’ve polled higher than ever before while three Labour councillors have defected. Has the insurgent firebrand finally met his match?

“I’m sure I don’t need to say this, but I despise Nigel Farage’s politics and disagree with him on almost everything,” Polanski tells Sky News.

“But I think his storytelling has undoubtedly cut through and so yes there has been a huge part of us saying ‘If Farage can do that with a politics of hate and division, then it’s time for the Green Party to do that with a politics of hope and community’ and that’s absolutely what I intend to keep doing.”

Polanski was speaking after a news conference to announce the defections of the councillors in Swindon – a bellwether area that is currently led by a Labour council and has two Labour MPs, but was previously controlled by the Tories.

It is the sort of story the party would previously have announced in a press release, but the self-described “eco populist” is determined to do things differently to grab attention.

He has done media interviews daily over the past few weeks, launched his own podcast and turbocharged the Greens social media content – producing slick viral videos such as his visit to Handsworth (the Birmingham neighbourhood where Robert Jenrick claimed he saw no white people).

Zack Polanski announces the defection of Labour councillors
Image:
Zack Polanski announces the defection of Labour councillors

Polanski insists that it is not increased exposure in and of itself that is attracting people to his party but his messaging – he wants to “make hope normal again”.

“I’m not going to be in a wetsuit or be parachuting from a helicopter”, he says in a swipe at Lib Dem leader Ed Davey.

“I think you only need to do stunts if you don’t have something really clear to say and then you need to grab attention.

“I think when you look at the challenges facing this country right now if you talk about taxing wealth and not work, if you talk about the mass inequality in our society and you talk about your solidarity with people living in poverty, with working-class communities, I think these are the things that people both want to hear, but also they want to know our solutions. The good news is I’ve got loads of solutions and the party has loads of solutions. “

Some of those solutions have come under criticism – Reform UK have attacked his policy to legalise drugs and abolish private landlords.

Discontent is fuelling the rise of challenger parties. Pic: PA
Image:
Discontent is fuelling the rise of challenger parties. Pic: PA

Polanski is confident he can win the fight. He says it helps that he talks “quite quickly because it means that I’m able to be bold but also have nuance”. And he is a London Assembly member not an MP, so he has time to be the party’s cheerleader rather than being bogged down with case work.

As for what’s next, the 42-year-old has alluded to conversations with Labour MPs about defections. He has not revealed who they are but today gave an idea of who he would welcome – naming Starmer critic Richard Burgon.

Like Burgon, Polanski believes Starmer “will be gone by May” and that the local elections for Labour “will be disastrous”.

He wants to replace Labour “right across England and Wales” when voters go to the polls, something Reform UK has also vowed to do.

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Is Zack Polanski squeezing the Labour vote?

Could the Greens be kingmakers?

Luke Tryl, director of More in Common, says this reflects a “new axis of competition” as frontline British politics shifts from a battle of left vs right to a battle of process vs anti-establishment.

Farage has been the beneficiary of this battle so far but Tryl says Polanski is “coming up in focus groups” in a way his predecessors didn’t. “He is cutting through”, the pollster says.

However, one big challenge Polanski faces is whether his rise will cause the left vote to fragment and make it easier for Farage to win – something he has said he wants to avoid at all costs.

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And yet, asked if he would form a coalition with Labour to keep Farage out of power in the event of a hung parliament, he suggested he would only do so if Sir Keir Starmer is no longer prime minister.

“I have issues with Keir Starmer as prime minister,” he says. “I think he had the trust of the public, but I would say that’s been broken over and over again. If we had a different Labour prime minister that would be a different conversation about where their values are.”

He adds: “I do think stopping Nigel Farage has to be a huge mission for any progressive in this country, but the biggest way we can stop Nigel Farage is by people joining the Green Party right now; creating a real alternative to this Labour government, where we say we don’t have to compromise on our values.

“If people wanted to vote for Nigel Farage, they’d vote for Nigel Farage. What does Keir Starmer think he’s doing by offering politics that are similar but watered down? That’s not going to appeal to anyone, and I think that’s why they’re sinking in the polls.”

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Paratrooper known as ‘Soldier F’ not guilty of Bloody Sunday murders

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Paratrooper known as 'Soldier F' not guilty of Bloody Sunday murders

A former paratrooper accused of murdering two civilians in the Bloody Sunday shootings in Northern Ireland 53 years ago has been found not guilty.

Soldier F – who cannot be identified for legal reasons – was accused of killing James Wray and William McKinney during disorder after a civil rights parade on 30 January 1972 in Londonderry, also known as Derry.

The veteran was also found not guilty of five attempted murders at Belfast Crown Court on Thursday.

He had denied all seven charges.

Thirteen people were shot dead by the Parachute Regiment on the day in question.

Soldier F did not give evidence, but the court heard about previous statements from two paratroopers – known as G and H – who were in Glenfada Park North along with F.

The prosecution said their testimony was direct evidence that the defendant had opened fire in the area.

Bloody Sunday Trust undated handout photos of (top row, left to right) Patrick Doherty, Bernard McGuigan, John "Jackie" Duddy and Gerald Donaghey, (bottom row, left to right) Gerard McKinney, Jim Wray, William McKinney and John
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Bloody Sunday Trust undated handout photos of (top row, left to right) Patrick Doherty, Bernard McGuigan, John “Jackie” Duddy and Gerald Donaghey, (bottom row, left to right) Gerard McKinney, Jim Wray, William McKinney and John

However, the defence argued that they were unreliable witnesses as their statements were inconsistent with each other and with other witnesses who gave evidence.

The trial was held in Belfast in front of a judge, not a jury.

Delivering his judgment, Judge Patrick Lynch said the evidence presented against the veteran fell well short of what was needed for conviction.

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Two people dead and five others taken to hospital after fire in Glasgow

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Two people dead and five others taken to hospital after fire in Glasgow

Two people have died and five others were taken to hospital following a fire in Glasgow.

Emergency crews were called to the blaze at a property in Hughenden Lane in Hyndland at about 10.20pm on Monday.

Police Scotland said a man and a woman were pronounced dead at the scene.

The force said their next of kin have been informed.

Five others were taken to hospital for the effects of smoke inhalation.

Read more from Sky News:
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A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “The fire is not believed to be suspicious, and no criminality has been established.”

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