Statins in a Fist: “Life-Saving” Injections Twice a Year Can Replace Daily Pills for Thousands of Patients After Watchdog Approval
- The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence approved cholesterol-lowering blows
- Hundreds of thousands will receive strokes from their GP twice a year
- Drug treatment reduces “bad” LDL cholesterol levels by about 50%
Hundreds of thousands of people will receive top-down medications to lower cholesterol twice a year as an alternative to statins, it was announced today.
The “game-changing” treatment, called inclusive, is already underway in the NHS after it was approved by the UK medical watchdog.
The drug lowers levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol, a fatty substance that is collected in blood vessels by 50%, making it as effective as high-dose statins. It is given by injection once every six months, saving patients the need to take statin tablets daily.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) has initially approved the puncture only for patients with high cholesterol who already have heart disease or have suffered a heart attack or stroke (about 300,000 in total ).
It has been announced today that hundreds of thousands of people will receive twice a year from their head doctor twice to lower cholesterol as an alternative to statins.
Experts said it will save about 30,000 lives and prevent 55,000 heart attacks and strokes over the next decade.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the “life-saving” treatment was a “big step forward in the fight against the scourge of heart disease”. Patients will be injected by nurses at general consultations across England, with a second dose three months later and then injections twice a year. Inclisiran is more effective if taken along with statins, but can be used alone for those who do not tolerate pills.
Research is underway to see if the drug could be used preventively to benefit millions of people at risk for heart problems.
High cholesterol affects about two in five adults and is one of the leading causes of heart disease, accounting for one in four deaths in England.
Some eight million adults in the UK receive prescribed statins, but some have side effects from despair, such as headaches and the hassle of taking a pill every day.
Inclisiran is the first convenient and effective alternative to pills. The drug helps the liver eliminate cholesterol from the blood by blocking the production of a protein called PCSK9 that reduces the body’s ability to eliminate cholesterol.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the “life-saving” treatment was a “big step forward in the fight against the scourge of heart disease”
They will usually be sold for around £ 2,000 per dose, meaning it would cost around £ 4,000 a year per patient. But NHS England said it had negotiated a “world-leading” confidential agreement with manufacturer Novartis, and that 300,000 patients would receive the drug over the next three years. Statins cost about £ 20 a year per patient.
NHS chief Amanda Pritchard said the deal “will allow hundreds of thousands of people to benefit from this revolutionary treatment, while at the same time being fair to taxpayers”.
Meindert Boysen, deputy executive director of Nice, said: “Inclisiran represents a possible change of game in preventing thousands of people from dying prematurely from heart attacks and strokes.”
Professor Kausik Ray, of Imperial College London, who led the drug research, said: “It’s great news for patients. It will reduce their medication load and provide comfort.”