Lots of letters in today's edition of the New York Times on NICE and the issue of cost-based vs. patient-centric care. To see them all, click here.
Here's my contribution:
To the Editor:
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in Britain is set to lift its ban on several kidney cancer drugs. The move will give patients access to lifesaving medicines that had previously been deemed “too costly” to cover under public health insurance.
This reversal is effectively an acknowledgment that the agency hasn’t worked as intended. By denying patients access to cutting-edge treatments simply because of cost, it has heartlessly put lives at risk.
Peter Pitts
New York, Dec. 3, 2008
The writer is president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest and a former associate commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.
Here's my contribution:
To the Editor:
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in Britain is set to lift its ban on several kidney cancer drugs. The move will give patients access to lifesaving medicines that had previously been deemed “too costly” to cover under public health insurance.
This reversal is effectively an acknowledgment that the agency hasn’t worked as intended. By denying patients access to cutting-edge treatments simply because of cost, it has heartlessly put lives at risk.
Peter Pitts
New York, Dec. 3, 2008
The writer is president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest and a former associate commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.
