There has been recent discussion about the need to revise drug pricing frameworks within the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS), particularly amid the ongoing transatlantic trade frictions involving potential tariffs from the United States administration. Elevating the cost-effectiveness threshold applied by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) by 25 percent from its established range of £20,000 to £30,000 per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) would increase access for NHS patients to innovative treatments that were previously excluded on grounds of excessive cost relative to their clinical benefits. However, this change would also put increased pressure on the NHS budget. It is difficult to quantify the extra spending that might result from a wider range of drugs becoming available for use in the NHS through this change but any extra spending on these treatments would have to be matched by reductions in spending on other health services. Effect...
Updates from Imperial College London's Professor of Primary Care & Public Health