UK NICE should have role in pharma R&D target-setting, parliament is told

Pharma Marketletter, December, 2004

Pressures from industry, doctors and patient groups mean that drugs are sometimes introduced into routine clinical practice in the UK National Health Service in advance of any strong evidence of their benefits in the target population, and there is a tendency to give such new products the benefit of the doubt in favor of being genuine advances, according to Patrick Vallance, professor of clinical pharmacology and head of the department of medicine at University College London, UK.

Speaking at the December 2 hearing of the House of Commons Health Select Committee, held as part of its investigation into the influence of the pharmaceutical industry (Marketletters passim), Prof Vallance added that, once a drug is being used in routine practice, it becomes difficult to...