NICE Grants Regulatory Approval for Expanded Use of Efient
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have granted expanded regulatory approval for Eli Lilly/ Daiichi Sankyo’s bloodthinner Efient to help prevent atherothrombotic events.
NICE published guidance endorsing Efient when given with aspirin, to avert blood clots in patients who either have had a heart attack, have unstable angina, or are undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention.
Regulatory guidance published in 2009 largely only approved Efient in patients with unstable angina undergoing angioplasty, when the procedure is necessary due to a type of heart attack known as ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).
Jean-Michel Cosséry, managing director of Lilly UK and Northern Europe, noted that the new extended regulatory guidance means that both STEMI and NSTEMI patients can now benefit from the treatment, adding that he welcomed the recognition that the drug is “a cost effective option when compared to generic clopidogrel.”
The extended approval means that the drug will be available to an increasing number of patients, with an estimated 32,000 hospital admissions for unstable angina and approximately 82,000 cases of myocardial infarction in the UK annually.