NICE updates appraisal policies

Under a new assessment system for its Highly Specialized Technologies program for rare diseases, the U.K.'s NICE replaced the fixed £100,000 ($122,220) threshold it had previously proposed with a sliding scale that could permit automatic funding of some drugs with costs per QALY as high as £300,000 ($366,660), if they meet minimum thresholds for the number of QALYs gained.

Drugs that provide a gain of 10 QALYs or less and have a cost per QALY under £100,000 will qualify for automatic funding. For drugs that provide a gain of 11 or more QALYs, each additional QALY gained would push the cost per QALY threshold up by £10,000 ($12,222) to a maximum threshold of £300,000 per QALY for drugs that provide a gain of 30 or more QALYs, NICE spokesperson Phil Ranson told BioCentury...