New drugs—great for the drug company, less so for the patient

Drug companies love new drugs—that’s where their profits come from.  But when it comes to value for money and even extending life, they often fall short.

Researchers from the London School of Economics have been looking at the benefits of new drugs that have been approved for use in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) over the last 20 years.

New drugs are more expensive, and over those years they cost the NHS £75 bn; they achieved 3.75 million years of health, the researchers reckon.  But if the NHS had stuck with the older drugs, around 5 million years of healthy life would have been achieved.

New drugs and treatments must be approved by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (Nice) before they can be adopted by the NHS, and the decision weighs cost against effectiveness and safety.

Many new drugs cost more than older ones, and they allow the drug company to “charge prices that are higher than what the NHS pays to deliver similar health benefits using existing treatments and services,” the researchers explain.

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