• Breast #cancer drug Kadcyla is too expensive for the NHS – not to pay for it is the correct decision | Deborah Orr | The Guardian
    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/25/kadcyla-cancer-drug-too-expensive-nhs

    How do you put a price on life? How would you know where to start? In the case of the independent NHS watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), there is a points system, which calculates QALYs, or quality-adjusted life years. If a new drug costs more than £30,000 per QALY, then it’s deemed too expensive for use by the NHS. So it’s a bit rich for Roche, developers of the new breast cancer drug Kadcyla, to be acting all shocked that Nice says it’s too expensive for use by the NHS. At the moment, treatment with Kadcyla costs more than £180,000 per QALY. Which is clearly quite steep.

    #santé #NICE