NICE uses wrong comparator to assess cost effectiveness of new drugs, report says

Patients may be denied access to new drugs and medical innovation may be stalled by the way the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence assesses medicines for cost effectiveness, a report from the University College London School of Pharmacy has claimed.1

Licensed to Cure? said that in around a quarter of the cost effectiveness assessments of new medicines that NICE carried out from 2008 to the end of 2013 the manufacturers were asked to provide data on a non-licensed alternative against which their product could be compared. David Taylor, one of the authors of the report, said that the use of low cost non-licensed medicines as comparators was wrong and could create a false perception of the true value of a new medicine.

“If you were to compare the cost of a new Volvo against an old banger, it’s very unlikely the Volvo would …