NICE has announced that development is ongoing for a new rapid review process to update recommendations based on the clinical and cost-effectiveness. This process is being developed with the aim to deliver treatments more quickly to patients to combat new variants if these treatments show promise and are cost-effective. The surveillance process to spot emerging variance and evidence that medicines continue to be effective is already in place. A public consultation for proposals for the new rapid review process will be launched from April 3.
Helen Knight, director of medicines evaluation at NICE, stated: “The rapidly evolving nature of COVID-19 means we need to have a way of establishing the cost effectiveness of existing medicines against current variants in an agile way. That is why we are developing a process to monitor real world data and re-evaluate the medicines as needed against that data in a faster way than we currently do for other drugs”. The aim of this new rapid review process is to produce updated recommendations from 6-8 weeks after determining the effectiveness of the medicine.
Sources:
- NICE recommends 3 treatments for COVID-19 in final draft guidance. NICE. https://www.nice.org.uk/news/article/nice-recommends-3-treatments-for-covid-19-in-final-draft-guidance. Accessed 22nd Feb 2023.
- NICE says evidence that COVID-19 treatment Evusheld is effective in protecting vulnerable adults against current variants is lacking as it announces new rapid update process for COVID-19 medicines. NICE. https://www.nice.org.uk/news/article/nice-says-no-evidence-that-covid-19-treatment-evusheld-is-effective-in-protecting-vulnerable-adults-against-current-variants-as-it-announces-new-rapid-update-process-for-covid-19-medicines. Accessed 22nd Feb 2023.