Appeal Court rules that NICE procedure was unfair

doi:10.1136/bmj.39574.351782.DB

BMJ 2008;336:1035 (10 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39574.351782.DB

News

Appeal Court rules that NICE procedure was unfair

Clare Dyer

¹ BMJ

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The hopes of people with mild Alzheimer’s disease of havingaccess to acetylcholinesterase inhibitors through the NHS wereboosted last week when three appeal court judges ruled thata key step in the process for appraising the drugs for NHS usewas "procedurally unfair."

The court unanimously overturned a High Court ruling that theNational Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)acted fairly when it refused to supply the drug company Eisaiwith a full version of the computer model it used to decidethat the treatment would not be cost effective for the earlystages of the illness (BMJ 2007;335:319; doi: 10.1136/bmj.39307.630347.DB).

The drugs cost £2.50 ( ${euro}$ 3.17; $4.90) a day. In 2004 NICEdecided that they were not cost effective for mild Alzheimer’sdisease. It will now have to give Eisai the "fully executable"version of the model in place of the read only model . . . [Full text of this article]