Published 24 June 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2560
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b2560
News
Scottish body assesses drugs at a fraction of cost of NICE, its chairman says
Colin Wright
1 Edinburgh
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Scotland’s system for assessing new drugs is quicker, cheaper, and more efficient than its counterpart in England and produces broadly similar results, the chairman of the Scottish Medicines Consortium has said.
Ken Paterson, a consultant physician for NHS Greater Glasgow, told delegates at a conference on rationing in the NHS, which was organised by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, that the consortium assesses all new drugs within 18 weeks of submission. He added that the organisation costs less than £1m (
1.2m; $1.6m) a year to operate, that it assesses and produces advice on 100% of all new drugs, and that its assessments match those of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in 83% of cases.
Professor Paterson said that NICE takes at least 39 weeks to produce a response and assesses around 15-20% of all new drugs. NICE, which produces guidance for England and
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