As increasing numbers of promising but expensive biologic agentsare introduced for use as medical treatments, drug pricing hasbecome a high-profile issue. Earlier this year, pricing practicestook a new turn in Britain, when the National Institute forHealth and Clinical Excellence (NICE), the evaluative agencythat applies cost-effectiveness analysis in making recommendationsconcerning drug coverage, declined to support coverage of theproteasome inhibitor bortezomib (Velcade) by the British NationalHealth Service (NHS) for the treatment of multiple myeloma.It concluded that the price was too high relative to NICE'sestimates of its average benefits for the population to . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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Dr. Garber is the associate director of the Center for Health Care Evaluation and a staff physician at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System — both in Palo Alto, CA; and a professor of medicine, economics, and health research and policy and director of the Center for Health Policy at Stanford University, Stanford, CA. Dr. McClellan is a senior fellow and director of the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution and a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute — both in Washington, DC.
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