Relenza verdict forces 'fasttrack' re-think

Chief executive Andrew Dillon said it would be reviewing the process followed by its rapid assessment committee in 'a week or so', and that results would be published. 'We believe we did the job well, ' he said. But he hoped the rapid assessment process would be used 'very rarely'.

'We would much prefer to put all technologies referred to us through the standard procedure - one we have thought about and discussed widely, ' he said.

Mr Dobson asked NICE to issue guidance to doctors saying the anti-flu drug 'should not be prescribed in the NHS during the forthcoming flu season'.

But Relenza has not been banned.

Mr Dillon said he expected doctors to take NICE's guidance 'fully into account when exercising their professional judgement'.

NICE told Mr Dobson that the benefits of Relenza were 'modest' in 'otherwise healthy individuals' and the cost of achieving this benefit were 'uncertain but significant'. It found an 'absence of clear evidence' that the drug would help high-risk patients.

Sir Richard Sykes, chair of Relenza manufacturer Glaxo Wellcome, said it was 'deeply disappointed' and called for a complete 'reappraisal of how NICE works, and its procedures'.

But Mr Dobson said that in its own literature, Glaxo Wellcome had acknowledged that it did not yet have 'a great deal of evidence on the impact of the drug on high-risk groups'.

NHS Confederation chief executive Stephen Thornton described the government's support for NICE's recommendation to reject the anti-flu drug as 'vital for the NHS'.

But British Medical Association GP committee chair Dr John Chisholm said: 'The secretary of state's failure to blacklist the drug has done nothing to protect GPs from potentially colossal demand for Relenza.'

Mr Dobson has asked NICE and NHS research and development director Sir John Pattison to work with the company to provide better evidence for a full assessment of Relenza next year.