The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is the independent organisation responsible for providing national guidance on the promotion of good health and the prevention and treatment of ill health.
The guidance from NICE covers things like medicines, medical devices, diagnostic techniques, and procedures), but it also deals with the clinical management of specific conditions.
When NICE recommends a treatment (such as natalizumab), the NHS must ensure it is available to those people it could help, normally within 3 months of the guidance being issued.
As part of its work, NICE carries out a programme of appraisals. In each appraisal, NICE looks at a particular area of treatment and gathers together an expert panel who review all of the research evidence in relation to the topic and publish guidance for the NHS. NICE has published the following appraisals in MS, and links to them can be found on the Further Reading - References page:
The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) provides advice to NHS Boards and their Area Drug and Therapeutics Committees (ADTCs) across Scotland about the status of all newly licensed medicines, all new formulations of existing medicines and new indications for established products (licenced from January 2002).
