medicines

Nigel Hawkes :: Fri, 13/01/2012 - 16:22

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Percentagewise, it’s a common error

If a price doubles, is it 200 per cent higher? No, it’s 100 per cent higher.

Nigel Hawkes :: Thu, 21/07/2011 - 14:07

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Vaccine double U-turn lacks transparency

Nigel Hawkes :: Mon, 21/06/2010 - 11:21

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Don’t count the numbers, count the spoons

The bigger a study, the better? That’s an assumption often made. But even studies that knock us out by their sheer size may be wrong.

Mon, 14/06/2010 - 10:10

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Do antidepressants work?

Controversy over the effectiveness of antidepressants such as Prozac, provoked by an article by Irving Kirsch and colleagues in 2008 in PLOS Medicine, shows no sign of declining.

Sheila Bird :: Fri, 04/06/2010 - 16:15

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NICE and public health science challenged by MS risk sharing scheme

The most striking revelation in a quarter of comments in BMJ.com on the Department of Health’s risk sharing scheme for multiple sclerosis (MS) drugs is its undermining of subseq

Nigel Hawkes :: Fri, 04/06/2010 - 16:00

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NHS nil, Drug Industry 5: how not to run a risk-sharing trial

The new Government has promised to establish a system in which the price paid for drugs represents the value they bring to patients.

Nigel Hawkes :: Wed, 21/04/2010 - 12:58

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Cameron’s questionable cancer drug claims

Is David Cameron right to claim that people are dying because they cannot get access to cancer drugs?

Sheila Bird :: Thu, 10/12/2009 - 09:49

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Desperate Hubris: the costly, ineffectual risk sharing scheme for multiple sclerosis

Seven years ago, after strong media, clinical and patient pressure, the Government negotiated a “risk-sharing” deal over access to drugs to treat multiple sclerosis.

Nigel Hawkes :: Thu, 10/09/2009 - 10:26

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NICE confusion over drug uptake

The NHS Information Centre has issued some “experimental statistics” covering the take-up of medicines approved by the National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).