NICE chairman slams pharmaceutical industry

Further to criticism over NICE decisions with comments that they are 'mean' Sir Michael delivered a no nonsense reply, saying that the reason why drugs are so expensive...

"Pharmaceutical companies have enjoyed double-digit growth year on year and they are out to sustain that, not least because their senior management’s earnings are related to the share price. It’s not in their interests to take less profit, personally as well as from the point of view of the business.”

In reply a comment was issued by the ABPI that new medicines can take up to 10 years to bring to market costing over $700M  Indeed many drugs will never recoup this cost so somewhere down the line, some drugs produced by these pharmaceutical companies need to make a lot of money to cover this.

The row erupted after a recent drug which could extend the life of Kidney cancer patients by few weeks or months was turned down by NICE as not economically viable.