NICE has launched a new market access officer in order to speed up the adoption of new medicines, devices and diagnostics by the NHS.
The Office for Market Access (OMA) will give commercial stakeholders access to a dedicated team at NICE so that interact and inquire more with the evaluation process.
The NICE team will offer tailored support, helping these stakeholders to identify the most appropriate journey for their products within NICE.
Carole Longson, NICE health technology evaluation centre director, said: “Technology continues to transform our ability to predict, diagnose and treat disease. New drugs and technologies – many developed here in the UK with our superb science base – are helping to turn conditions that use to disable or kill people into chronic illnesses.
“OMA will help to improve the rates at which drugs, devices and diagnostics get picked up and adopted by the NHS. It will speed up the adoption of innovative cost-effective health technologies by helping companies to get the right evidence, develop a better case and engage with the right people.”
Around a third of the £167,000 annual cost of running the OMA is to come from fees for its services which are paid by pharma companies, with the rest coming from grants.
Dr Paul Catchpole, director of value and access at The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said: “The ABPI very much welcomes the new initiative announced today by NICE, and the real opportunity it represents for all key stakeholders that play a role in getting new medicines to patients, to engage and interact together more closely.
“Any initiative which strengthens relationships and delivers earlier, more frequent and meaningful dialogue between the life sciences industry, regulators, NICE and the NHS can only help speed up improve the adoption and use of innovative medicines for NHS patients.”
The landscape for the adoption of new health medicines is changing rapidly with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s Early Access to Medicines Scheme (EAMS) being a prime example.
EAMS was launched in April 2014 with the aim of providing patients in the UK with life threatening or debilitating conditions access to medicines that do not yet have marketing authorisation.