NHS accused of wasting millions on heart drug

A NEW “hugely expensive” cholesterol drug does not improve overall survival chances for patients with heart disease and should be withdrawn from use, experts have claimed.

Doctors said last night that patients should be told evolocumab does little to halt fatal heart attacks and strokes. Data shows the injectable medicine costs the NHS more than £645,000 for every minor heart attack or stroke it delays.

A trial by Amgen, which makes the drug under the name Repatha, showed a five per cent higher death rate among those taking it than in the placebo group. It said the rate was not “statistically significant” and is explained by the short duration of the trial – 2.2 years. A longer study would have shown a survival benefit, it said.

It said Repatha decreased low-density lipoprotein, or “bad”, cholesterol to “unprecedented low levels”.

Dr John Abramson, of Harvard Medical School, said: “There is no evidence on this data that there is a death benefit in people at high risk of cardiovascular disease. It’s a hugely expensive drug.”

The medicine costs £4,400 per patient per year. The NHS was told to provide it by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence last year. Sir Richard Thompson, former president of the Royal College of Physicians, said it had “an amazingly small benefit”.

A spokesman for Amgen said: “We remain confident Repatha is a clinically effective and cost-effective treatment in the very high risk patient group stipulated by Nice.”