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Article: Inescapable trade-offs; New drugs.(Cost-benefit analysis in health care)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- February 25, 2006
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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All for one and one for all
Weighing up the costs as well as the benefits from new medicines is vital
OVER the past few months there has been a rumbling row about Herceptin, an expensive breast-cancer drug that patients are struggling to get through the publicly funded National Health Service for an aggressive form of early-stage breast cancer. The current position is a mess, with payment for the drug depending on where patients live, rekindling the charge that the NHS is a "postcode lottery".
The controversy has highlighted the question of how costly new therapies are to be introduced into the NHS. This week, for example, doctors called on the ...