New medicines are not being assessed efficiently or fast enough, which is limiting patient access, according to a highly critical report by MPs.  The House of Commons health select committee also criticized the refusal of experts to replace old treatments and therapies that are no longer considered effective.  The report outlined problems that they said were preventing the efficient workings of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), which is responsible for assessing the cost-effectiveness of drugs.  A statement from the MPs said: "The Committee finds it unacceptable that NICE has ignored repeated recommendations to evaluate older, possibly cost-ineffective therapies and urges that more must be done to encourage disinvestment in this area."  Mark Simmonds, the shadow minister for health, said: "We believe it is right that evaluations of the relative effectiveness of treatments are made by clinicians, not by politicians."

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