first 14 injections of the drug, and if the patient needs any more after that the drug company Novartis will pay. This enabled Nice to say 'yes'. Hopefully this will lead to thousands more people not losing their sight. Why on earth can't this be applied generally? Instead of the NHS denying access to drugs because they say it's not cost-effective - as Nice has done recently with four kidney cancer drugs -- we should encourage the NHS to use new medicines which are clinically effective, and agree subsequently to pay the drugs companies according to the therapeutic benefit. In other words, drugs companies should only be paid according to the benefits that a drug brings to patients. NICE should be involved in this process, working with drug companies to set fair prices for new medicines -- rather than refusing new treatments which it deems too expensive. Our proposals will mean better access to new drugs for more patients at exactly the same cost as the current system. It is an innovative solution to a critical problem. This sounds simple, but the NHS' current drug pricing scheme is outdated, stuck in a 1950s style system of price control and profit cap. Moving to the new system that I propose would be tough; it will mean payment by results for drug companies. Many existing drug treatments will get a lower price from the NHS. Really innovative drugs with good clinical benefits will do better. Overall, as the Office of Fair Trading