UK’s NICE calls for more people at risk of CVD to be prescribed statins

The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is recommending that many more people should be prescribed cholesterol-lowering statins if they are at risk of heart disease, stroke or peripheral arterial disease.

As many as 7 million people in the UK are believed to take statins, at an estimated annual cost of £450 million ($740 million). Currently doctors prescribe statins if people have a 20% risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD), but in new draft guidance issued today for public consultation, NICE is recommending that the threshold for starting preventive treatment of these conditions should be halved to a 10% risk. CVD causes one in three of all deaths in the UK. Long-term ill health caused by CVD is also increasing and it disproportionately affects people who are socially deprived or have a low income.

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