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Thousands set to benefit from new cholesterol lowering drug
Last updated at 00:07am on 18.09.07
The new drug can be used alongside a low cholesterol diet
Thousands of men and women at risk of heart disease could soon be given a pioneering drug to lower their cholesterol after it was approved by the Government's rationing body.
Ezetimibe can be taken by those who cannot tolerate statins - the most commonly prescribed drugs - or in combination with them.
It costs more than ten times as much as statins at £26 for a month's treatment but as many as 100,000 patients could benefit from it.
Because of this, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence yesterday ruled the drug is cost effective.
Its guidance will be formally sent to primary care trusts in November.
They will then have three months to ensure funding is allocated for the drug's use.
Dr John Pittard, a GP from Staines, West London, who has a special interest in heart disease, described the move as 'sensible' and said it could prevent thousands of heart attacks.
Government guidelines advise patients at high risk of heart disease to have a total cholesterol level of less than 5millimoles per litre.
Their levels of 'bad' cholesterol - known as low-density lipoprotein (LDL) - should be less than 3millimoles per litre.
A third of patients at high risk of heart disease are not reaching those targets, even though three million are treated with statins.
Dr Pittard said: "Many patients don't fully respond to or tolerate statins.
"About one in ten has muscle aches or gut pain while one fifth cannot get their cholesterol levels low enough despite using statins. Ezetimibe is really useful in these cases.
"It's probably going to be used in 50,000 to 100,000 people, and could bring about further reductions of up to 25 per cent in LDL cholesterol. It's an added bonus to statin treatment.
"This is sensible advice from NICE."
The drug works in a different way to statins, which block cholesterol made in the liver.
Ezetimibe instead blocks the absorption of cholesterol in the gut, even among patients already on a low- cholesterol diet. The drug, which is marketed by Merck Sharp & Dohme and Schering-Plough, was licensed three years ago.
Michael Livingston, director of the charity HEART UK for those with high cholesterol, said he was 'delighted' by NICE's decision.
"The impact of high cholesterol is huge and too many patients are still being put at risk of premature death - over 4,000 people die every week of cardiovascular disease in the UK because of high cholesterol, smoking, physical inactivity and poor diet," he added.
"Prescribing ezetimibe will be of great benefit to those who currently find it very difficult to reach their cholesterol target."
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