The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) has proposed that the threshold for prescribing statins in order to lower cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of heart attacks and stroke should be reduced. If the guidance is accepted it is likely to mean that the number of people who will be advised to take the drugs will rise from seven million to 12 million or one in four adults.
The current medical guidance states that anyone with a 20 per cent risk of developing cardiovascular disease within 10 years should be offered statins.Under the proposed guidance this will be threshold will be reduced to include anyone with a 10 per cent risk of developing cardiovascular disease within a decade.
Britain has the second highest prescribing levels for statins and they are already the most commonly prescribed medication in Britain, costing the NHS £450 million a year.
Professor Mark Baker, Director of the Centre for Clinical Practice at NICE said: “Smoking, high blood pressure and raised cholesterol levels are big causes of cardiovascular disease, especially in people with more than one of the factors. But the risk is measurable and we can substantially reduce someone's chance of a heart attack, angina, stroke and the other symptoms of cardiovascular disease by tackling the risk factors.”
Britain has the second highest prescribing levels for statins and they are already the most commonly prescribed medication in Britain, costing the NHS £450 million a year.
Professor Baker added, “People should be encouraged to address any lifestyle factors such as smoking, drinking too much or eating unhealthily. We also recommend that statins are now offered to many more people - the effectiveness of these medicines is now well proven and their cost has fallen.”
Registered stakeholders, such as professional and government organisations, patient and carer groups, and companies, have until the 26th March 2014 to comment on the draft guidance.
