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A computer model used by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to assess the cost-effectiveness of an Alzheimer’s drug must be made available to drug companies, the Court of Appeal has ruled.
In R (Eisai Ltd) v NICE & Ors the court ruled that NICE had acted unfairly in refusing to allow pharmaceutical firms Eisai and Pfizer access to a “fully executable” version of the economic model it had used when deciding that the drug Aricept should not be prescribed on the NHS to patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease.
Eisai and Pfizer—which market Aricept—were unable to properly challenge NICE’s decision because of the watchdog’s refusal to allow access to the economic model, the court ruled. The Court of Appeal’s decision means that NICE must now make such a version available.
NICE claims the full details of the computer programs are the intellectual property of the academic teams who developed them, and who are entitled to have them protected. It is considering an appeal to the House of Lords. Stephen Hocking, partner in the public law department at law firm Beachcroft, which acted for NICE, says this is a surprising and worrying judgment for all public bodies.
“Just as public bodies are expected to respect the role of the courts, so the courts have to respect the role of public bodies.
“There is a boundary between a proper scrutiny of what public bodies do, and an improper interference in how they do it. If the courts do not respect that boundary public bodies are at the mercy of any claimant with an axe to grind,” he says.
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