Britain puts NICE at centre of new drug pricing system

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s health cost watchdog NICE will be responsible for assessing the full value of medicines under a value-based pricing system for new drugs due to take effect from 2014, the government said on Thursday. The move, which had been expected, will allow the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to build on its current drug evaluation processes by giving it broader scope to assess a medicine’s benefits and costs. Britain’s current drug pricing arrangements cap the return on investment that drugmakers can make. …