Key Summary
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence raises cost thresholds to allow more medicines to be approved.
- This could mean better access to new and innovative treatments for patients.
- The change also aims to encourage pharma companies to launch drugs in the UK.
The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has implemented new measures to assess the cost-effectiveness of medicines following a policy change.
It follows the government’s recent decision to increase the thresholds that NICE can use in technology appraisals to £25,000 - £35,000 per quality-adjusted life year gained.
The move is expected to incentivise pharmaceutical companies to launch innovative treatments in the UK. Some treatments that deliver significant health improvements but were previously been turned down on cost grounds, will now be approved.
The NHS utilises the quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), a combination of length of life achieved from the new treatment and its effect on the quality of life to assess the health benefits of a new medicine or health technology.
QALYs is also an efficient way to compare existing and new potential treatments in the NHS, helping the government to decide its spending on health and medicines.
“The new thresholds aim to provide better outcomes for patients, while also supporting the life sciences sector and broader economy,” commented Professor Jonathan Benger, chief executive of NICE.
He added, “Our independent appraisal committees will use the new thresholds immediately, and these changes will be applied to both new and on-going medicines evaluations."
These changes are being implemented in the backdrop of the government’s approval of pharmaceutical partnership with the US.
