Lilly’s Efient receives new NICE recommendation

Lilly's anti-platelet therapy Efient has been recommended for a new acute coronary syndrome indication by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

The prasugrel-based treatment has been endorsed for use in combination with aspirin for preventing blood clots in people who have had a heart attack or who have unstable angina and are also undergoing a procedure to widen narrowed arteries in the heart.

NICE's new guidance follows a review of the clinical and cost-effectiveness of the product, noting that since its original recommendations were published in 2009, it has updated its published guidance on the use of ticagrelor for the same indication, while the price of another drug – clopidogrel – has fallen due to generic competition.

Meanwhile, the UK regulator has also heard from clinical experts that the faster action of Efient compared to clopidogrel could be an advantage for patients who need immediate percutaneous coronary interventions.

Professor Carole Longson, director of the centre for health technology evaluation at NICE, said: "Taking these factors into consideration, we are now recommending prasugrel as an option for more people with acute coronary syndromes than our previous guidance."

Known as Effient in the US, the drug has also been recommended by NICE as an option for people with non-ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction and unstable angina, with or without diabetes.