NICE To Lose Cost Watch-dog Status By 2013

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) will likely no longer have any role in drug cost-effectiveness decisions after 2013, according to UK ministers speaking in London on October 25. Instead, a new value-based pricing system will see drug prices set to reflect a product's worth in the first place, without the need for NICE to carry out its assessment once a drug is already available.News of an end to NICE's most controversial activity will be welcomed by the many companies that have seen their products' commercial potential in the UK severely limited by a negative assessment from the cost watchdog - even though details of the alternative, value-based pricing, are far from clear.