SMC put under review
pharmafile | November 20, 2012 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Alex Neil, NICE, SMC, Scotland
The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has been put under the spotlight in two reviews ordered by Scotland’s health secretary Alex Neil following concerns over access to drugs.
SMC fulfils a similar role to NICE in England, appraising the efficacy and cost effectiveness of newly-licensed medicines.
The first review is being undertaken by Professor Philip Routledge, chair of the All Wales Medicines Strategy Group, and will look at how the SMC’s assessment processes compare with those of other organisations, with an emphasis on new best practice.
The second, by chief pharmaceutical officer Professor Bill Scott, will centre on consistency and effectiveness as he seeks to find out how the SMC’s decisions are implemented locally by NHS boards.
Individual boards set their own criteria for prescribing SMC-approved products and Neil said: “Some clinicians, charities and patients have…raised concerns about access to medicines, so it is only right that we look at ways that we could potentially improve access arrangements.”
But he added that the SMC is “globally respected and has the fastest and most efficient medicine review process anywhere in the UK”.
Scott’s frame of reference includes any improvements that may need to be made to the process of individual patient treatment requests, which doctors use to prescribe drugs not accepted for routine use by the SMC.
SMC’s chair, Professor Angela Timoney, pledged support for Routledge, saying: “We are always willing to learn lessons from other countries. The SMC is confident that its work is rigorous and of high quality. People from many countries come to Scotland to observe and learn from the SMC approach.”
In England there have long been concerns about the way NICE’s decisions are interpreted by health authorities on the ground. In August the Westminster government wrote to NHS prescribing leads telling them they must start to incorporate NICE guidance into their formularies.
The publication of the Innovation Health and Wealth report last December was in part designed to ensure a uniform uptake of new medicines recommended by NICE.
Adam Hill
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