No confidence vote for NICE as National Osteoporosis Society tells Government to order fresh appraisal of drug treatments

The National Osteoporosis Society has announced that it has written to Secretary of State for Health, Alan Johnson MP, to ask for his intervention to secure a fresh appraisal of osteoporosis treatments by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

The charity said that it is ‘deeply disappointed’ that even though key points in their appeal last year were upheld by NICE’s own appeal panel, the most recent appraisal has still not addressed their original concerns. The charity maintains that the latest set of proposed guidelines remain ‘unfair, needlessly restrictive and clinically unworkable’. However the Society has decided against a second appeal, which could only result in the same NICE team appraising drug treatments for a third time. Instead they have asked for an entirely fresh appraisal.

The National Osteoporosis Society’s Director of Public and External Affairs, Nick Rijke said the charity had “lost all confidence in the appraisal process.”