NHS drug pricing is all about the art of the deal | Letter
Polly Toynbee describes NHS drug pricing as a “special circle of hell”, and I can vouch for that, but there are ways it can be made better (Who benefits if NHS drug prices soar? Donald Trump and big pharma.Just one more way he’s menacing Britain, 16 September).New drugs are never cheaper than the ones they replace, so if the NHS is going to use them, they need to be better.Most newly licensed drugs do something useful for at least some patients.While a few revolutionise treatment, most edge forward improvements in the quality and length of life, and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) recommends the great majority of them.
Spending more money on a new drug takes cash away from elsewhere in the NHS, so Nice and the NHS use a bit of health economics to work out how to make this trade-off.Companies complain that the formula for this hasn’t been updated for 25 years, but Nice frequently flexes its baseline value-for-money threshold to facilitate access to promising new treatments.After Nice recommends new medicines, companies face a couple of other challenges.The NHS is sometimes slow at adopting new drugs, and when it does, a separate mechanism, negotiated between the drugs industry and the government, places a limit on the amount of money companies can make out of them.Three things might help make what will always be a tricky process a little easier.
First, Nice and the government should set up an independent review of the value-for-money threshold and implement its recommendations,Second, Nice should set take-up rates (numbers of patients prescribed each year) for the drugs it recommends, and the NHS should commit to achieving them,And third, in return, companies should engage early with Nice and put a realistic price forward at the beginning (they always know what it is) rather than waiting for Nice to say no and then reducing it later,Companies that do this should then get a special deal on the price cap,Andrew DillonFounding chief executive, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, 1999-2020
Temu’s UK operation doubles revenues and pre-tax profits
The UK operation of the Chinese online marketplace Temu doubled revenues and pre-tax profits last year, as British consumers snapped up products offered by the super-budget retailer.Temu UK reported revenues of $63.3m (£46.4m) last year, almost double the $32m in 2023, while pre-tax profits similarly surged from $2m to $3.9m, accounts show
Memes and nihilistic in-jokes: the online world of Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer
On the day that 22-year-old Tyler Robinson shot and the killed rightwing activist Charlie Kirk, prosecutors say, he texted his roommate to confess what he had done. While appearing to admit to the murder and describe how he was planning to retrieve his gun, he pivoted to mention why he had carved messages into the ammunition.“Remember how I was engraving bullets? The fuckin messages are mostly a big meme,” Robinson texted, according to authorities.Robinson’s shooting of Kirk has put the spotlight on the intersection of political violence and an increasingly nihilistic online world that promotes misinformation and extremism. It’s a confluence that raises fundamental questions about how internet culture influences both extremist attacks and how we understand them, at a time when some of the biggest online spaces are increasingly more divisive and less moderated
ChatGPT developing age-verification system to identify under-18 users after teen death
OpenAI will restrict how ChatGPT responds to a user it suspects is under 18, unless that user passes the company’s age estimation technology or provides ID, after legal action from the family of a 16-year-old who killed himself in April after months of conversations with the chatbot.OpenAI was prioritising “safety ahead of privacy and freedom for teens”, chief executive Sam Altman said in a blog post on Tuesday, stating “minors need significant protection”.The company said that the way ChatGPT responds to a 15-year-old should look different to the way it responds to an adult.Altman said OpenAI plans to build an age-prediction system to estimate age based on how people use ChatGPT, and if there is doubt, the system will default to the under-18 experience. He said some users “in some cases or countries” may also be asked to provide ID to verify their age
How memes, gaming and internet culture all relate to the Charlie Kirk shooting
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. Dara Kerr here, filling in for Blake Montgomery, who promises he’ll come back from vacation. Meanwhile, I’m looking at the memes, gaming and internet culture behind the shooting of Charlie Kirk.The bullet that killed conservative activist was inscribed with a message: “Notices bulge OwO whats this?” The online world quickly recognized the reference. It’s a phrase used in internet culture to troll people in online role-play communities, specifically furries (a subculture that cosplays as anthropomorphic animal characters)
How AI is undermining learning and teaching in universities | Letter
In discussing generative artificial intelligence (‘It’s going to be a life skill’: educators discuss the impact of AI on university education, 13 September) you appear to underestimate the challenges that large language model (LLM) tools such as ChatGPT present to higher education. The argument that mastering AI is a life skill that students need in preparation for the labour market is unconvincing. Our experience is that generative AI undermines teaching and learning, bypasses reflection and criticality, and deflects students from reading original material.Student misuse of generative AI is widespread. Claims that AI helps preparation or research is simply cover for students taking shortcuts that do not develop their learning skills
Top UK artists urge Starmer to protect their work on eve of Trump visit
Leading British artists including Mick Jagger, Kate Bush and Paul McCartney have urged Keir Starmer to stand up for creators’ human rights and protect their work ahead of a UK-US tech deal during Donald Trump’s visit.In a letter to the prime minister, they argued Labour had failed to defend artists’ basic rights by blocking attempts to force artificial intelligence firms to reveal what copyrighted material they have used in their systems.Senior figures in US tech are accompanying the US president on his state visit, where an announcement is expected on a UK-US tech pact covering areas including AI.Elton John, one of the letter’s signatories, said government proposals to let AI companies train their systems on copyright-protected work without permission “leaves the door wide open for an artist’s life work to be stolen”.“We will not accept this,” he added
Clarks opens up a shoebox of memories with museum to mark 200th year
Laneway festival 2026: Chappell Roan leads lineup featuring Wet Leg, Wolf Alice and PinkPantheress
Jimmy Kimmel: Republicans ‘working very hard to capitalize’ on Charlie Kirk’s killing
‘The storm for Lear is inside him’: Crossing choppy seas to bring Shakespeare to Isles of Scilly
Seth Meyers: ‘Trump clearly has no answer to Putin’s aggression’
What do the circus and US politics have in common? Ask these Black and brown circus artists