Pause on NICE’s cost recovery plans

16 Jan 2017 03:08 PM

Plans for NICE to recover the costs of its appraisals of drugs, medical devices and diagnostics, through charges to the companies which make them, have been put on hold until the Government completes its life sciences strategy.

NICE has been discussing the proposals with industry representative organisations since last summer.

NICE’s chief executive, Sir Andrew Dillon, said:

“We have been working to create a new funding model for technology evaluation to meet the government’s challenge to drive efficiency and deliver better value. We’ve agreed with the Department of Health to wait for the Government’s life sciences strategy to be completed before we move forward with our plans.” 

The proposals are to introduce charges to recover the costs associated with technology appraisals and highly specialised technology guidance. 

In the meantime, we will continue to test our existing proposal against the suggestions and challenges made in the other consultation responses we received.

About NICE appraisals

All NICE’s appraisals are currently funded by a direct grant from the Department of Health. This means the amount of work NICE can do on appraisals is subject to rigid annual limits. Charging for appraisals would allow NICE to be more flexible and more responsive to changes in demand.

In July 2015, a Cabinet Office triennial review of NICE recommended it consider the introduction of charges to industry for appraisals activity. This was reinforced, in the context of the Government spending review, in the Department of Health’s priorities for NICE for 2015-16.