UK healthcare agency to take broader view of new drugs

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UK healthcare agency to take broader view of new drugs

By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - Healthcare agency NICE, which determines the use of treatments in the state-run health service, may be more likely to say 'yes' to new drugs under proposals that enable it to take a broader view of the value they offer. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), will in future look at the "wider societal impact" of therapies - whether they enable a patient to go back to work faster, for example, for the wider benefit of society - as well as their cost-effectiveness on more limited clinical grounds. But campaigners said the new proposals risked jeopardising access to some expensive cancer drugs and could discriminate against old people who contributed less to society, and against people nearing death, since it would do away with current special provisions for end-of-life care. Chief Executive Andrew Dillon told Reuters that wider overall uptake of new drugs would depend on pharmaceutical manufacturers keeping a tight rein on prices.

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