Satisfaction guaranteed - “payment by results” for biologic agents

As increasing numbers of promising but expensive biologic agents are introduced for use as medical treatments, drug pricing has become a high-profile issue. Earlier this year, pricing practices took a new turn in Britain, when the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), the evaluative agency that applies cost-effectiveness analysis in making recommendations concerning drug coverage, declined to support coverage of the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib (Velcade) by the British National Health Service (NHS) for the treatment of multiple myeloma. (October 18, 2007)