UK govt's NICE shift gets ABPI backing

The UK government's announcement to consider taking into account wider benefits and costs when the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) considers whether to recommend drugs has been welcomed by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry. The government, responding to the House of Commons Select Committee inquiry on the NICE, agrees that the issue of how the agency takes into account wider issues in arriving at an assessment should be debated with key stakeholders, including patient representatives and the pharmaceutical industry. The NICE is the government agency responsible for assessing and recommending therapies, including drugs, for use in the National Health Service in England and Wales.

"The price paid for a medicine or any other treatment has to be seen in the context of the overall value it brings, including benefits such as savings in hospital care and social services as well as quality of life improvements for patients," said David Fisher, the ABPI's commercial director. He added that the "NICE's decisions have been made on far too narrow a basis, with the result that many innovative medicines have not been made available to all patients who could benefit from them."

A study of drug recommendations by the NICE and the Scottish Medicines Consortium, which has equivalent functions to the NICE but employs a different methodology, especially in the speed of reviews, found that 11 oncology products and other treatments were denied to patients in England, but available in Scotland (Marketletter November 26, 2007).