In January 2009, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) began a policy for valuing the use of drugs for extending life in people with a short life-expectancy above treatments for other purposes. This development arose from concerns that NICE had been denying patients life-extending treatments because they were too expensive; such drugs exceeded the Institute's quality-adjusted life years (QALY) threshold of £20,000–£30,000. However, the new policy also …