UK's NICE sets up new committee to speed NHS guidance on new drugs and treatments

Against a background of criticism from several quarters for some of its decisions and slowness in making appraisals, the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has established a new committee to expand its capacity for producing guidance for the National Health Service on new drugs and treatments. The new Technology Appraisal Committee - which held its first meeting on October 27 - is one of four technology appraisal committees at the NICE. Its introduction will mean that NICE is able to appraise up to 42 new drugs and treatments each year, as well as speed up the time it takes to review existing NICE appraisals.

A UK House of Commons Health Committee report earlier this year (The Pharma Letter May 18) criticized the manner in which the NICE, which advises on what therapies should be available on the National Health Service, excluding Scotland, assesses expensive treatments, saying this is "both inequitable and inefficient use of resources."

Meantime, the Office for Life Sciences is working on a proposal to allow innovative medicines to bypass the NICE via a fast-track procedure.

Dr Peter Clark, a consultant medical oncologist at Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology in Merseyside, will chair the new committee. He is joined by Dr Jane Adam and Dr Amanda Adler who have now taken up their new posts as chairpersons of two existing technology appraisal committees. Dr Adam's and Dr Adler's appointments to the roles follow the recent retirement of Professor David Barnett who previously held the position of Chairman on both committees until earlier this year.

Dr Carole Longson, Health Technology Evaluation Centre Director at the NICE said: 'With the number of new and innovative treatments for conditions such as cancer increasing all the time, it is important that NICE is able to help PCTs [Primary Care Trusts] and other NHS organizations by identifying treatments which are an effective use of NHS resources.'

Publishes revised process guides for its technology appraisals program

Additionally, the NICE has published an updated guide which sets out how it produces its guidance on new drugs and treatments.
The updated process guides, which will came into effect on October 28, describe a uniform process by which NICE Single Technology Appraisals (STAs) and Multiple Technology Appraisals (MTAs) are carried out. They are aimed at both the independent advisory committees that prepare NICE guidance and those organizations representing patient groups, health professionals and manufacturers that are involved in producing NICE technology appraisal guidance.

New elements introduced in the updated guides reflect how NICE guidance development process has evolved in recent years and include:
' Inviting drug manufacturers to attend Appraisal Committee discussions;
' Inviting nominations of clinical specialists from all consultees and commentators to take part in the first Appraisal Committee meeting discussions; and
' Holding a debriefing meeting for manufacturers at the end of an appraisal.

Dr Longson commented: 'NICE is the global leader in evaluating the benefits of new drugs and treatments. These guides explain the processes we use to develop our appraisal guidance and it is therefore very important that we review them regularly. This review has been a valuable process which has enabled us to incorporate the views of stakeholders and the public. This new guide will help keep NICE at the cutting edge of this important work.'

The new process guides are available on the NICE web site: www.nice.org.uk/