NICE puts up fight over Avastin ruling

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence is preparing itself for a fight over its ruling that a bowel cancer drug, Avastin, should be made available on the NHS.

It has based this judgement on evidence which alleges that Avastin on average only extends the life of patients by around six weeks – however this claim is being disputed by campaigners who say that the drug could extend life by a number of years.

In response Sir Andrew Dillon, chief executive of NICE, has challenged those doubters to produce evidence which is to the contrary of NICE’s evidence.

He said: “These are draft recommendations issued for consultation, not final guidance. Healthcare professionals and patient organisations now have the opportunity to submit any evidence that may be relevant. We always consult on draft recommendations and always seriously consider all the comments received.

“NICE is charged with ensuring value for money in the NHS and when we recommend the use of very expensive treatments, we need to be confident that they bring sufficient additional benefit to justify their cost.

“Apart from individual cases highlighted in some of the media of patients surviving far longer than the six weeks average suggested by the evidence presented to our independent committee, we would obviously welcome any evidence, as part of this consultation, that would confirm this benefit in the majority of patients who take bevacizumab.”

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