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Forum
Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015
1 New NICE Office to Advise on Faster Adoption of New Drugs The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) will set up a new Office of Market Access to advise pharmaceutical companies on how to speed up the adoption of their new drugs by the National Health Service (NHS), says Nigel Hawkes for the BMJ. Announcement of the new office was delivered at a NICE Westminster Forum on healthcare research by NICE’s Director of Health Technology Assessment (HTA), Professor Carole Longson, who said that research is the key to generating new drugs, and regulators are encouraging faster adoption of new products through early access schemes that require less evidence than was previously necessary. She added that the new office would be a ‘‘hub’’ for research and life-science companies that would ‘‘provide an easier way for us to engage with all of the sectors that we need to’’. Also detailed at the seminar was the complex network of bodies set up as part of the government’s life-science’s strategy, which included biomedical research centres, clinical research networks and academic health-science centres. Three successes of the established biomedical research centres were also highlighted, including recent guidance on early exposure to peanuts for infants with allergies, Ebola vaccine research at Oxford University and research at University College London on cancer immunotherapy. However, Oliver James, Medical Director of the Academic Health Service Network in the north east of England and north Cumbria, pointed out that there is still a lot of
resistance in the NHS to the adoption of almost any new treatment, adding, ‘‘we had to bribe clinical commissioning groups to get insulin pumps to people with type 1 diabetes’’. He gave another example where clinicians in a big trust were very keen to adopt the use of home monitors for pregnant women with hypertension, where they could use hand-held devices to send the data to their doctors, but a week later, the trust said it would not happen because they ‘‘earned money from every visit the women made and didn’t want to lose that income’’. NICE currently has a target of producing an appraisal document within 6 months of a new drug being licensed, which it has not met over the past year. The new office— due to open by October 2015—aims to speed up the process, says Hawkes. Hawkes N. NICE to advise firms on how to speed up NHS adoption of their drugs. BMJ 2015; 350: h2813.
2 Forum to Expand Biosimilar Use Launched in US A group of 11 companies (Actavis, Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Coherus BioSciences, EMD Serono, Hospira, Merck, Pfizer, Samsung, Sandoz, and Teva) has launched a ‘‘Biosimilar Forum’’ with the aim to expand patient access to biosimilars within the US. Specifically, the Forum ‘‘will provide evidence-based information to educate and advocate for public policies and practices that encourage access, awareness, and adoption of biosimilars’’. On 7 May 2015, the Forum submitted a public statement
