NICE approves MSD and Schering-Plough’s Ezetrol
pharmafile | September 14, 2007 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Inegy, NICE, cv
NICE has approved Merck Sharp & Dohme and Schering-Plough's Ezetrol, but recommended the cheapest version be used – effectively blocking the company's combination pill Inegy.
Launched in the UK two years ago, Inegy combines Ezetrol (ezetimibe) with MSD's off-patent statin simvastatin and costs about £5 more than prescribing the two drugs separately.
NICE recommended Ezetrol for adults whose high cholesterol has a genetic cause and if a statin is contraindicated or the patient is intolerant to it.
It also recommended Ezetrol could be used with a statin, but only if it is prescribed on the basis of lowest acquisition cost.
A 28-tablet pack of Ezetrol costs £26.31 at the recommended 10-mg dose and the 10-mg (ezetimibe)/20-mg (simvastatin) strength of Inegy costs £33.42 for a 28-tablet pack.
In contrast, a 20-mg pack of generic simvastatin costs £2.18 for the same size pack, meaning if patients take the two tablets separately, it costs the NHS only £28.49.
NICE appraised Ezetrol for primary (heterozygous-familial or non-familial) hypercholesterolaemia using its fast-track, single technology appraisal system.
Hypercholesterolaemia, or a high concentration of cholesterol in the blood, increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, the most common cause of death in the UK.
Primary hypercholesterolaemia occurs when high cholesterol levels are associated with an underlying genetic cause or defect.
Ezetrol is also licensed as an adjunct to diet changes for people with homozygous familial sitosterolaemia and in combination with a statin in homozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia, but these indications were not appraised by NICE.
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