NHS "could save 2 billion stg" with cheaper statins

LONDON, June 9 (Reuters) The National Health Service could save 2 billion pounds over the next five years by using cheaper cholesterol-lowering drugs, doctors said today.

The NHS, which ran up a deficit of over half a billion pounds in the last financial year, spent 738 million pounds on the drugs known as statins in 2004.

Much went on atorvastatin, made by Pfizer Inc under the brand name Lipitor, and simvastatin, or Zocor, made by Merck&Co. Inc.

The UK patent on simvastatin, which is a less potent drug, expired in 2003. Generic simvastatin in England is now six times cheaper than brand name treatments.

''Using generic simvastatin as first line (treatment) could save 2 billion over five years in England,'' said James Moon, of UCL Hospitals NHS Foundation, in the British Medical Journal.

Zocor has already lost patent protection in Europe and industry analysts expect a generic version to go on sale in the United States later this month.

Moon and Richard Bogle, of Imperial College London, compared the effects of 10 mg and 20 mg of Lipitor with 40 mg of simvastatin.

They also calculated the savings of putting existing and new patients on higher doses of the cheaper drug.

''What we found was that there is no difference in the clinical effect,'' said Moon.

''There is a real opportunity here to save a huge amount of money that can be released to take the strain off other areas of the NHS.'' Statins, which lower cholesterol by inhibiting an enzyme that controls how much is produced in the body, are taken by millions of people around the world.

In England, the numbers are expected to rise following new guidelines on prescribing the drugs to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

REUTERS SK VC0543