Two new but expensive bowel cancer treatments should not be used in the UK's NHS, the country's cost-effectiveness watchdog NICE said today.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), however, decided the high cost of Avastin and Erbitux meant their use was not "compatible with the best use of NHS (National Health Service) resources".
Welcome to the real world, Big Pharma.
Reuters
7 comments:
I think the real story here is how NICE is denying people life-extending medications. Apparently they haven't done the math. (On average, a human life is worth around $300K USD/year in terms of what a body generates in revenues directly (in the form of work) and indirectly (spending) -- more than it costs for a year's worth of Erbitux or Avastin. And no, I don't remember where I read it, The Economist, perhaps.)
Sucks for people, like you, who live in the UK where their idiot government denies them the rights to life-extending medicines.
The only ones losing here are the UK public.
Anon.
Since this word is in the UK political vernacular at the moment please allow me this small comment:
Utter crap!
That's better.
Further to my last comment:
Bevacizumab (Avastin®) and Cetuximab (Erbitux®) have been appraised by NICE for use in metastatic colorectal cancer. NICE has recently made a final appraisal determination (FAD) available and while the process consultees can lodge an appeal is unlikely to change before publication.
The FAD recommends that these drugs are not used as they are not cost-effective. NICE has based their decision upon the cost to the NHS to improve the quality of life of a patient with metastatic colorectal cancer. NICE currently use a benchmark of £30,000 per Quality-adjusted life-year (QALY). Neither of these drugs meets that benchmark and in some prediction models are the cost per QALY was more than 3 times the NICE benchmark.
Your witty and well-reasoned rebuttal is duly noted.
Like I said above (for some reason Opera eats Blogger identifying information unless I'm super careful. Stupid Opera...), it sucks to be you guys.
I can get these meds in the US -- paid for, even! -- without much trouble.
And we can get them over here as well.
Just not paid for on the NHS.
Even if it was for my dearest loved ones (or myself) I would not want the NHS to pay for these treatments.
Interesting thought here chaps.
You can get them here (the UK) - paid for (by yourself) with no subsidy whatsoever.
Not a lot of use if you happen to be poor is it ?
About time someone starting thinking abouts patient rights rather than just cost.
Second interesting question.
Is "Health Economics" taught in any country other than the UK ?
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