The Price of Life

What is a year of your life worth? The Appraisals Board at the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is charged with evaluating the benefits of a variety of drugs and treatments before they are provided on the NHS. This BBC documentary investigates the issues involved in the provision of a treatment for Myeloma, Revlimid.

At the heart of the arguments is the concept of opportunity cost. The provision of Revlimid means that other treatments cannot be provided. There are also questions raised about the pricing strategies of the drugs company, the empirical methods used by NICE, and some more philisophical issues regarding the relative value of one’s final years. Not for the faint-hearted, but sure to encourage some heated debate in the classroom. Available on iPlayer until Wednesday 24 June.