NICE CEO to step down by year-end
NICE CEO Dr Sam Roberts.
Dr Sam Roberts, the chief executive of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), has resigned and will leave the agency before the end of the year.
The health technology assessment (HTA) said in a statement that Roberts is leaving "to support her children through a difficult time," and that recruitment for a new CEO will "commence immediately."
Roberts has been at the helm of NICE for four years, taking over in February 2022 after the departure of Prof Gillian Leng, who decided to step down after the death of her husband, former Public Health England medical director Sir Paul Cosford. The reasons for Roberts' departure are not being disclosed.
NICE chairman, Sharmila Nebhrajani, praised Roberts for her transformational leadership, saying that during her tenure, the reimbursement authority had become "a more forward-looking, collaborative, and responsive organisation, whilst staying true to its mission of helping the NHS to get the best care to patients fast, at good value to the taxpayer."
Her achievements included an increase in the speed of drug assessments by more than 25%, new procedures for evaluating health interventions for high-severity diseases, efforts to reduce health inequalities, and a rapid appraisal framework for emerging technologies like digital health tools and AI, she said.
There is still work to be done before Roberts steps down, notably the start of implementing the new NHS 10-Year Plan, which proposes an expanded role for the HTA that she has said gives NICE "the power to get medicines to patients faster, reduces the postcode lottery for high impact healthtech, and maximises the value for money of existing innovations used in the NHS."
The plan includes the creation of a new joint taskforce between NICE and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to cut review times for new medicines, an expansion of the HTA's technology appraisal process to cover devices, diagnostics, and digital product, with new powers to remove outdated tech from the NHS, and rolling re-evaluations of priority clinical pathways.
Nebhrajani said that Roberts "will stay on to the end of the year to continue to lead the organisation through the delivery of our business plan," with a particular focus on objectives including mandated NHS reimbursement of NICE-approved health tech, dynamic assessments of health interventions, and the aligned regulatory pathway with the MHRA, which aims to deliver simultaneous licensing and reimbursement decisions and reduce costs.
