ABPI responds to NICE's consultations on health technology methods and processes

Article summary

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) has published its response to three recent consultations launched by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on proposed changes to the methods and processes by which health technology is evaluated. While the ABPI welcomes the changes that will support timely access to new medicines, two key areas of concern were identified with regards to the proposal that medicines can only be routed to the highly specialised technologies evaluation programme if they have an eligible patient population of less than 500 across all of their licensed indications, as well as in relation to the decision to retain the current discount rate at 3.5%. The ABPI states that these proposals will restrict patient access to medicines and hold back the UK’s ambition to be a global life sciences hub. As a result, ABPI calls upon the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and NHS Improvement...