[Ip-health] UK Guardian Generic statins could save NHS £85m a year

[Riaz K Tayob]

Generic statins could save NHS £85m a year


· Ministers back switch for cholesterol treatment
· Trusts urged to abandon expensive branded drugs

Sarah Hall, health correspondent
Thursday December 28, 2006
The Guardian

The NHS could save at least £85m a year if doctors prescribed the
cheapest cholesterol-busting statins instead of branded alternatives,
ministers say today.

Figures published as part of the health service's biggest productivity
drive yet show that if all GPs prescribed two generic statins -
pravastatin and simvastatin - in 69% of all cases the annual drugs bill
would be at least £84.7m less.

The top quarter of primary care trusts manage to meet this percentage
but the least efficient trusts are wasting hundreds of thousands of
pounds by going for more costly alternatives. One trust, Tameside and
Glossop, only prescribes the cheapest statins in 31% of cases, meaning
it could save £435,846 a year.

Statins are at present given to 2.3 million adults, but new Nice
guidelines mean anyone with a 20% risk of a heart attack or stroke in
the next 10 years - up to 5.2 million adults in England - is now
eligible for treatment. The volume of statins prescribing has already
increased by more than 150% in the last five years, and cost the NHS
around £600m in 2005.

But the cost of statins varies markedly, depending on whether they are
branded drugs or the generic versions, which Nice recommends GPs
prescribe and are equally effective.

A 28-day course of generic statins cost between £1.89 and £4.57, with
the most expensive course being £26.42. The same length course of a
branded alternative costs between £18.03 and £29.69.

Doctors often prescribe more expensive brands because they have become
used to prescribing them, know they are effective, and have patients who
are reluctant to swap treatment. They may not have the time to research
the benefits of new drugs, and they may be unaware of the generic drugs
- products whose patent has expired and so can be made more cheaply.

The increase in low-cost statin prescribing is now one of 16 indicators
used by the government to show how much each hospital and primary care
trust in England could save if it adopted the practices of the smartest 25%.

Launching the second set of quarterly figures for the "Better care,
better value" audit, health minister Andy Burnham said: "As new drugs
become available the local NHS will increasingly have to look closely at
the resources it spends on common treatments to ensure it is getting
value for money.

"Statin prescription is one of the areas that can release the most
savings ... clinicians can help to treat more patients by prescribing
one of the lower cost drugs where it is appropriate. Nice has confirmed
that generic versions of statins are as effective for most patients as
their more expensive, branded counterparts."