Millionsmore could get cholesterol drug onNHS

MILLIONS more patients could be taking statins to lower their risk of heart attacks and strokes from next year.

Guidance to GPs will recommend wider use of the cholesterollowering drugs in a drive to prevent cardiovascular disease.

For the first time any patient with a 20 per cent risk of having a heart attack or stroke in the next ten years will be eligible.

The new rules mean one in ten adults could find themselves taking statins, despite the fact that many will appear outwardly healthy.

Some experts believe a quarter of Britons could eventually be taking the drugs for life.

Under previous rules, statins were prescribed only to men and women under 75 who had a 20 per cent risk of developing coronary heart disease within ten years.

Under the new ruling an extra 3.3 million adults in England and Wales will be eligible for statins, in addition to the 1.8 million currently treated.

Statins reduce cholesterol, the waxy fat-like substance which can build up in arteries, raising the risk of heart disease and stroke.

It is estimated they prevent at least 7,000 heart attacks each year.

The guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence will be issued early next year.

It goes further than doctors expected but follows evidence that all patients at risk of cardovascular disease can benefit from the drugs, regardless of their cholesterol levels.

Yesterday experts said statins were the ‘new aspirin’, offering an everyday method of prevention against heart problems and stroke.

Dr Rubin Minhas, a GP in Kent and expert witness to the NICE appraisal committee, said the guidance would at least triple the number of prescriptions for statins. ‘This is a historic decision that will eventually lead to statins occupying a similar role to aspirin today,’ he told the doctors’ magazine Pulse.

Dr John Ashcroft, a GP in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, who specialises in heart disease, said the ruling could save 20,000 lives a year.

NICE said there would be massive implications for workload and costs.

Trusts will have to find between £55 and £82million in drug costs by next April, when the guidance is expected to apply.