London: Sufferers of wet age-related macular degeneration in England- an eye disease which leads to blindness are to get a sight-saving drug.

The drug, Lucentis, is already available in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The UK-government’s drug rationing body National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) had originally said patients should wait until they went blind in one eye. But pressure from sufferers and medical professions has led to a reversal of the decision.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) comes in two forms – wet and dry – with the dry form being much more common. However, the wet type is more aggressive and is responsible for about 90% of blindness caused by the condition. Almost 20,000 people a year are diagnosed with wet AMD in England.