UK's NICE opens consultation on drug assessments and recommendations

The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is beginning a formal consultation on proposed changes to the way it makes recommendations on new medicines and other treatments for use in the National Health System (NHS).

NICE assesses the clinical and cost effectiveness of new technologies to help ensure that patients have access to effective treatments and the NHS makes the best use of its resources. It says the new proposals include ways to take into account “more systematically and explicitly the severity of a disease”.

NICE chief executive Sir Andrew Dillon said: “These proposed changes to the way we value new treatments will add further clarity to our recommendations and enable our independent advisory committees to explore more fully the potential these treatments have to improve outcomes for patients.”