November 18, 2015

expert reaction to the release of NICE draft guidance that it is not recommending evolocumab as a treatment for patients with high cholesterol levels

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has announced draft guidance that it is not recommending evolocumab as a treatment for patients with high cholesterol levels.

Prof. Peter Weissberg, Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation (BHF), said:

“Evolocumab represents an entirely new approach to lowering cholesterol and this new class of drug holds great promise for the future.

“However, before approving evolocumab for long term treatment of high cholesterol, NICE, quite appropriately, wants to see evidence that the treatment is safe and that it actually prevents heart attacks and strokes. And, because statins are effective, well tolerated and cheap, NICE also needs convincing that any benefit evolovumab offers justifies its substantial additional cost.

“For the vast majority of people with elevated cholesterol levels, statins offer an effective solution. It is to be hoped that before long evolovumab and similar drugs in the pipeline will gain approval for treatment of those few people with extremely high cholesterol levels who, for whatever reason, have not had a satisfactory response to statins.”

Draft guidance from NICE available here.

Declared interests

Prof. Peter Weissberg: No conflicts of interest to declare