Published 22 August 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a1422
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a1422

News

NICE is accused of "jockeying for position" in new drug pricing scheme

¹ London

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

An unprecedented attack on drug companies’ prices by the head of England’s drug approvals body shows that it is jockeying for a key role in the forthcoming overhaul of drug pricing, observers say.

Michael Rawlins, who chairs the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), has criticised the industry for profiteering. In an interview in The Observer (www.guardian.co.uk, 17 Aug, "Health chief attacks drug giants over huge profits") he said that drug companies aimed for "double-digit growth year on year ... not least because their senior management’s earnings are related to the share price."

"All these perverse incentives drive the price up," he said.

His comments came after NICE was criticised fiercely for failing to approve a batch of new kidney cancer drugs (BMJ 2008;337:a1262, 14 Aug, doi: 10.1136/bmj.a1262).

Joe Collier, an emeritus professor of medicines policy at St George’s, University of London, said that . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    StumbleUpon    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

European cooperation could help to lower drug prices

Timothy D Heymann
BMJ 2008 337: a1584. [Extract] [Full Text]

The ranibizumab saga of drug profiteering

Andrew C K Lee and John Radford
BMJ 2008 337: a1532. [Extract] [Full Text]

Watchdog set to reject four drugs for kidney cancer on the NHS

Adrian O’Dowd
BMJ 2008 337: a1262. [Extract] [Full Text]

NHS pays £500m too much for prescription drugs

Susan Mayor
BMJ 2007 334: 383. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Heymann, T. D (2008). European cooperation could help to lower drug prices. BMJ 337: a1584-a1584 [Full text]  
• Lee, A. C K, Radford, J. (2008). The ranibizumab saga of drug profiteering. BMJ 337: a1532-a1532 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

The Lucentis Saga: NHS 0 Pharma 1

Andrew C K Lee
bmj.com, 29 Aug 2008 [Full text]

NICE Monopoly

R Mohindra
bmj.com, 31 Aug 2008 [Full text]

Nicer than NICE

Timothy D Heymann
bmj.com, 4 Sep 2008 [Full text]

Online poll

Find out more >>