Watchdog says expensive cancer drugs not delivering
Value for money criteria met by only one of 20 new drugs that had an initial asking price of €500 million
Just one of 20 new cancer drugs examined by the state’s medicines watchdog was considered value for money, according to a new assessment by the body.
Professor Michael Barry, who heads up the National Centre for Pharmacoeoconomics (NCPE), said the assessment of cancer drugs raised “obvious questions” around how we decided to spend limited resources in the health service.
“The question has to be asked - would we be better spending such millions ...
