4 Summary of the NICE-wide topic prioritisation process
The NICE-wide topic prioritisation process is designed to ensure that NICE guidance reflects national priorities for health and care, in line with NICE's principles. The process involves the following:
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national priorities for the health and care system are identified (see section 5)
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if a new topic or update of an existing guidance addresses a national priority (see section 6) and meets the eligibility criteria (see section 7), a topic briefing is prepared for the NICE prioritisation board (see section 9.1)
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the new topic or update is assessed using the prioritisation framework (see sections 9.2 and 9.3), alongside the NICE strategic principles for public health, social care and rare diseases where appropriate.
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the NICE prioritisation board decides whether new NICE guidance or an update to existing guidance should be prioritised for further development, and what type(s) of guidance the topic is likely to be best addressed by.
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the decision and brief rationales from the NICE prioritisation board are published on the NICE website.
The 2024 voluntary scheme for branded medicines, pricing, access and growth states that NICE will continue to evaluate all new active substances and significant indications, except where there is a clear rationale not to do so. These new active substances and significant indications will not go through the NICE-wide topic prioritisation process and will be routed to technology appraisal guidance, except when there is a clear rationale not to do so (see section 7.1.3).
The NICE prioritisation board will make highly specialised technologies (HST) routing decisions using the HST criteria (see routing criteria for highly specialised technologies).