An unprecedented attack on drug companies’ prices by the head of England’s drug approvals body shows that it is jockeying for a key role in the forthcoming overhaul of drug pricing, observers say.

Michael Rawlins, who chairs the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), has criticised the industry for profiteering. In an interview in The Observer (www.guardian.co.uk, 17 Aug, “Health chief attacks drug giants over huge profits”) he said that drug companies aimed for “double-digit growth year on year … not least because their senior management’s earnings are related to the share price.”

“All these perverse incentives drive the price up,” he said.

His comments came after NICE was criticised fiercely for failing to approve a batch of new kidney cancer drugs (BMJ 2008;337:a1262, 14 Aug, doi: 10.1136/bmj.a1262).

Joe Collier, an emeritus professor of medicines policy at St George’s, University of London, said that Professor Rawlins was “jockeying for a central role in price negotiation” in the forthcoming overhaul—due to be announced in the next few months—of the pharmaceutical price regulation scheme.

Richard Barker, director general of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said, “NICE was not created to set medicine prices—nor indeed to drive them down, as NICE’s chairman now seems to see as his mission.”

BMJ 2008;337:a1422