observer Posted November 20, 2009 Report Share Posted November 20, 2009 The decision by NICE, that a new drug to fight liver cancer is too costly to sanction on the NHS, would appear to deny sufferers the possibility of living for 6 months longer at a cost of ?3000 per month - common sense and logic OR not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Kennedy Posted November 20, 2009 Report Share Posted November 20, 2009 I've often thought that drugs companies should produce funding plans before they go ahead producing new drugs. I rather think that they produce the drugs and rely on emotional blackmail for sales. NICE have a very difficult job, how do you value a life given the finite resources available. With regards to liver cancer which is a really difficult one, I thought life expectancy was a matter of just a couple of months so this is clearly a fantastic drug if it extends life by six months, somebody I knew lasted six weeks between diagnosis and death. I suppose extending what could be a very short life expectancy, can be that it gives people the opportunity to put their affairs in order. I know that is what another friend of mine did when he had renal cancer, he had some serious financial problems but managed to sort them out so that his wife was OK when he died. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
observer Posted November 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2009 So it would cost the tax-payer ?3,000 to allow someone time to "get their affairs in order"?! The reason NICE was set up as a Quango, was to outsource these difficult decisions away from the politicians and thus electoral blackmail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lt Kije Posted November 20, 2009 Report Share Posted November 20, 2009 Obs Someone has to make these difficult decisions its a job I would not like to do, what would the quality of life be in the final six months Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
observer Posted November 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2009 I'm not complaining about it - we have a culture of "it's my right" nowadays, in which every new (and expensive) straw has to be offered to each and every drowning individual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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