Eisai challenges NICE on transparency

The UK subsidiary of Japanese drug major Eisai, and maker of the Alzheimer's disease treatment Aricept (donepezil), has announced its referral of the Information Commissioner to the Parliamentary Ombudsman for failure to address the refusal by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to make public key calculations behind its proposal to restrict the use of anti-dementia drugs on the National Health Service in England and Wales (Marketletters passim).

Despite recommending anti-dementia drugs for both mild and moderate AD in 2001, the NICE has now proposed that only patients with moderate disease be allowed to receive the medicines on the NHS.

Eisai says it has repeatedly asked for details of the mathematical model which the NICE used to assess various assumptions about price and effectiveness of treatment. After the Institute's persistent refusal to make these available, Eisai complained to the Information Commissioner, asking him to intervene. However, the firm says that his failure to act has promoted its decision to report the matter to the Parliamentary Ombudsman. Eisai UK's managing director, Paul Hooper, said: "it is disgraceful that NICE are using economic models which they refuse to make available for scrutiny by others."