NHS Secures Deal for Game-Changing Anti-Cholesterol Drug
NHS England will soon be offering a 'game-changing' anti-cholesterol drug for hundreds of thousands of people for whom statins and other treatments have not worked.
It has negotiated a confidential deal to give inclisiran, a twice-a-year injection, which is expected to save 30,000 lives in ten years.
The drug normally costs £2,000 per dose but for the second time in three months, NHS England has agreed a deal with Novartis for an exciting life-changing medicine.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has recommended inclisiran for patients who have had a stroke or heart attack and are not responding to other cholesterol-lowering treatments.
Unlike statins, which slow down the production of cholesterol in the liver, inclisiran uses gene-silencing to help the liver absorb more 'bad' LDL cholesterol from the blood and break it down.
This is the second deal in three months with Novartis. Three months ago came the news that the NHS was starting to provide a revolutionary gene therapy drug called Zolgensma, to treat babies with spinal muscular atrophy - a condition suffered by one in 10,000 babies and which sees few of them survive beyond their second birthday.
Comment
The UK has often been criticised for not being able to pay for medicines that cost a lot of money, but this is another good news story which points to something different. This highlights that the NHS will provide drugs that can make a huge difference to people's lives.
The 2021 PING Conference, which VWV will be holding in collaboration with IQVIA, is entitled 'UK Life Sciences Opportunities in a Changed World'. The Conference will look at many ways in which the UK is now innovating and bringing new treatments to patients. This will include hearing from Blake Dark, Interim Chief Commercial Officer at NHS England and Improvement, who will be speaking about 'NHS Commercial Medicines: Securing innovative treatments for patients'. Find out more about the event here.