25 January 2014 - The medicines watchdog has rejected government-proposed changes to the way it determines which drugs the NHS should pay for, saying they risk penalising women and elderly and less affluent people. NICE will consult next month on an update to its methodology for assessing drugs. It had been asked by the Department of Health to make judgments on the \"wider societal benefit\" of medicines before recommending them for NHS use.

For more details, go to: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jan/24/societal-benefit-medicines-watchdog-nice