NICE respond to ‘flawed and inaccurate' drug industry sponsored report on cancer drugs

Responding to the Karolinska Institute report published in the Annals of Oncology, Andrew Dillon, NICE Chief Executive said, “This drug industry sponsored report is flawed, inaccurate and directly contradicts itself in places. NICE has sped up access to effective cancer treatments, Herceptin for breast cancer being a case in point and a recent report by the Professor Richards the Cancer Tsar showed that the use of NICE-recommended cancer drugs is higher than ever. Despite claiming this previously published report has been updated, the authors fail to mention our rapid appraisal process that has been up and running for 18 months, enabling us to issue guidance to the NHS more quickly. Our Implementation programme continues to support the NHS to put our guidance into practice so that patients can access NICE recommended treatments.”