NICE to consult Novartis on phase III trial

Novartis has cut a deal with the UKs medicines advisory agency to jointly design a clinical trial to measure cost effectiveness as well as the efficacy of an experimental new drug, the Financial Times quoted a company official as saying.The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) will charge a consultancy fee to tell Novartis the information it needs to determine whether to advise the UK health service to buy the medicine once it is launched.The move marks a radical step to justify the value of new and often expensive medicines, representing an effort to integrate and accelerate talks between companies, regulators and buyers.Novartis opened talks with Nice last month on the design of its Phase III clinical trial for the medicine which it has code-named Novartis 001 and aims to have a final protocol in place by next March, with results within about a year.
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