High court upholds NICE guidance
NICE faced two judicial reviews in 2008/09, with challenges to our 2007 clinical guideline on chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) and our 2008 technology appraisal guidance on drugs for osteoporosis. In each case the High Court broadly endorsed our rigorous methods and the guidance was upheld.
In the ruling on the technology appraisal guidance on osteoporosis, the High Court agreed that NICE was correct not to release confidential information from a third party that was used in the economic model. The judgement asked us to do all we could to encourage the owner of the information to allow us to release it. In March 2009 the Court ruled that we had worked constructively on this.
In May 2008, the Court of Appeal ruled on appeals against the judicial review of the NICE technology appraisal guidance on drugs for Alzheimer´s disease. As a result, we were asked to release 'fully executable' versions of the economic model to stakeholders for comment. The Court of Appeal did not ask for the guidance to be withdrawn or amended. NICE made the fully executable model available to stakeholders in November 2008. Comments on the reliability of the model were reviewed by NICE's Decision Support Unit, which prepared a report that was considered by the Technology Appraisal Committee in April 2009.
The High Court ruled in favour of NICE on all grounds brought against the Institute in the judicial review of its clinical guideline on CFS/ME. The judgement, which was made in March 2009, acknowledged the dedication of the guideline development group members in working together to produce the best guideline possible. The result means that the NICE guideline continues to be the gold standard for best practice in managing CFS/ME.
This page was last updated: 17 August 2009
