NHS drugs go-ahead offers lifeline to children with rare muscle-wasting disease

Ezra Thorman started treatment with nusinersen when he was a baby and his mother, Portia, says it saved his life. Photograph: Courtesy of Thorman family

Hundreds of children with a rare muscle-wasting disease will be able to receive two drugs that can improve their survival in a move parents hailed as a “lifeline”.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) has published final draft guidance recommending that any patient who would benefit can have either drug.