The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 278 No 7452 p574
19 May 2007

This article
Reprint   Photocopy

  Acrobat Reader

News summary

NICE chairman calls on patient groups to challenge the cost of medicines

Patient groups need to be wary about donations from pharmaceutical companies and should question the cost of their products, according to the chairman of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.

Sir Michael Rawlins, speaking at a King’s Fund briefing last week, said: “Patient groups need to think carefully about why pharmaceutical companies are giving them money and they need to make sure they are not beholden to a company.”

Professor Rawlins said he had yet to hear of a patient group criticising the price of a medicine. “The day that a patient association says that the problem is not that NICE is being mean but that the company is asking too high a price for its drug is the day that patient groups will have come into their own.”

On the issue of whether patient groups have sufficient input into the NICE process of drug appraisals, Professor Rawlins said: “Patient groups have their say but can’t necessarily have their way … we have to look after everyone, particularly those without powerful lobby groups.”


Meeting, p589