ABPI: put more data in scorecards
pharmafile | June 12, 2013 | News story | Sales and Marketing | ABPI, NHS, scorecards
The ABPI has called on the NHS to include more new medicines in its innovation scorecard and to come up with ways of highlighting more clearly variations in drug use across the country.
The call comes after the publication this week of the second innovation scorecard – a document outlining uptake of medicines on the NHS whose genesis was in the Department of Health’s Innovation, Health and Wealth paper in December 2011.
Published by the NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) on behalf of the DH and NHS Commissioning Board, the scorecards are designed to help throw regional variations under the spotlight, underpinning a wider move to ensure that drugs with positive NICE technology appraisals automatically become part of the local formulary, ending postcode lotteries in prescribing.
The figures come from a variety of sources, including sales numbers from pharma firms, Pharmex figures on the purchase of medicines by NHS trusts and primary care prescription data from the NHS Business Services Authority.
The gap between NICE’s national guidance and local uptake has long driven pharma to distraction – with some industry observers convinced that NICE-approved drugs have been in effect outlawed by prescribing committees.
However, anyone hoping to get a clear idea of progress on this contentious issue may be disappointed by the new publication, which follows the inaugural scorecard published in January.
In a brief note, the HSCIC insists: “It is not appropriate to draw conclusions from direct comparisons of the data for 2011 in the first scorecard with data for 2012 in the second publication, as many factors may be responsible for any apparent variation.”
Differences in populations served and in services provided are cited as potential issues, along with changes in clinical practice and the upheaval of the NHS restructure which may render some comparisons meaningless.
“In future updates, including the next scorecard set for publication in September, we want to see its depth and scope increase significantly,” insisted ABPI chief executive Stephen Whitehead.
“This is essential because if the scorecard is to be a genuine driver of change, it must be comprehensive and detailed enough for people to make meaningful judgements about the state of innovation in the NHS,” he added.
HSCIC is explicit that the scorecards are, at the moment at least, ‘experimental’ publications since data on local compliance – and on patient numbers treated – is not available centrally.
It is actively seeking suggestions as to what datasets it would be appropriate to include in the future and the ABPI is happy to oblige.
Its wishlist includes more data on new medicines launched within the last five years to see information analysed by Academic Health Science Network geographic areas, and an over-arching desire to make the document – or, more accurately, the spreadsheet and charts – more user-friendly.
The ABPI also wants the scorecard linked to the work of the NICE Implementation Collaborative – a body set up to monitor and enforce compliance with technology appraisals.
Adam Hill
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