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The medicines watchdog has rejected government-proposed changes to the way it determines which drugs the NHS should pay for, saying they risk penalising women and elderly and less affluent people.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) will consult next month on an update to its methodology for assessing drugs. It had been asked by the Department of Health to make judgments on the "wider societal benefit" of medicines before recommending them for NHS use.
But a board meeting this week decided it would be wrong to make an assessment that effectively would put a monetary value on the contribution to society of the people likely to be taking the drugs. That would mean scoring younger people with a lifetime of work ahead of them higher than their elders, and men, who earn more on average, higher than women.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jan/24/societal-benefit-medicines-watchdog-nice
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) will consult next month on an update to its methodology for assessing drugs. It had been asked by the Department of Health to make judgments on the "wider societal benefit" of medicines before recommending them for NHS use.
But a board meeting this week decided it would be wrong to make an assessment that effectively would put a monetary value on the contribution to society of the people likely to be taking the drugs. That would mean scoring younger people with a lifetime of work ahead of them higher than their elders, and men, who earn more on average, higher than women.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jan/24/societal-benefit-medicines-watchdog-nice