New cancer drugs held up by the NHS for nine years as rationing body accused of letting down patients

The Daily Mail reports:

Patients are waiting up to nine years for cancer and Alzheimer’s drugs to be available on the health service because approval takes so long.

The delays mean that even new drugs given the all-clear in extensive trials remain stuck in the queue for years.

A major study found that on average it takes five years from a treatment’s launch by a manufacturer to approval by the rationing body, NICE.

But the process often lasts far longer, and on occasions NICE will not even start its assessment until a drug has been on the market for more than a year.

No word yet on this story from Paul Krugman.