Published 6 January 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b3
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b3

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NICE lifts cost limit on drugs to improve access to end of life treatments

¹ London

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

The NHS drugs watchdog has loosened the terms of approval for expensive treatments that extend life in patients with a short life expectancy. Drugs that would normally be ruled out of use on the NHS because they did not represent a cost effective use of resources are now more likely to be made available.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has issued its appraisal committees with supplementary advice when considering whether to approve treatments licensed for terminal illness that affect small numbers of patients, normally fewer than 7000 new patients a year. The advice came into effect from 5 January.

The advice applies to treatments that offer demonstrable survival benefits compared with current NHS practice, normally at least an extra three months of life. Treatments should be indicated for patients who are not expected to live more than 24 months and their incremental cost effectiveness ratio should . . . [Full text of this article]

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