CHE’s health inequality methods used in NICE technology evaluation

Posted on Wednesday 30 July 2025

Following an update to their technical methods, NICE will allow the use of distributional cost-effectiveness analysis (DCEA) of health inequality impacts in its health technology evaluations. DCEA methods developed by the Centre for Health Economics, University of York, can be used to assess whether new medicines, devices, diagnostics and specialised technologies have a substantial impact on social inequality in health.

This has the potential to make a modest but real difference to national NHS funding decisions about new technologies, as committees can alter the usual cost-effectiveness threshold if there is evidence of a substantial impact on health inequality. Companies can submit DCEA evidence to help demonstrate this, in line with NICE support guidance on how to produce DCEA evidence for technology appraisal. This update comes after a 2024 NICE position statement on the topic and follows two recent NICE submissions for exagamglogene autotemcel that placed quantitative analysis of health inequality impact in the spotlight by including DCEA.

"I'm delighted by this news and hope that one day all social policies will be assessed not just for their financial costs and benefits but also for their impacts on health and wellbeing, especially for the most socially disadvantaged people in society,"

Richard Cookson, Centre for Health Economics.

Further information can be found below

• A blog by NICE announcing this news
• CHE's distributional cost-effectiveness analysis resource page
• The technical support document for companies on producing DCEA information
• The history of the consultation process
• The revised NICE health technology evaluations manual, revised 14 July 2025