An extra 1.5 million people could benefit from regularly taking statins, the chloresterol-lowering drugs, potentially saving thousands of lives every year, a health watchdog says today.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is issuing guidance to help doctors identify people at risk of cardiovascular disease who may benefit from the drugs, which are taken by four million people in England and Wales. This could increase the number of people over 40 taking the drugs on prescription to nearly six million, meaning that the cost to the NHS would exceed £1 billion a year.

The drugs are already prescribed to patients to help manage heart and stroke conditions. The latest guidance suggests that they should be more widely used as a preventative measure.

Some experts suggest that greater emphasis should be placed on personal chloresterol targets for each patient.

The guidance urges doctors to look at risk factors using information in GP records. NICE recommends that those thought to have a risk of at least 20 per cent of developing cardiovascular disease within ten years should be given statins. Doctors should first ensure that the risk — and the level of blood fats, known as lipids — is reduced as much as possible through diet and exercise.

Statins work by reducing levels of low-density lipoprotein, the “bad” form of cholesterol, and are estimated to prevent up to 10,000 deaths a year.

Peter Weissberg, of the British Heart Foundation, said: “Relying on patients to attend surgeries for assessment will fail to reach many of those from socially deprived communities most at risk. The BHF is disappointed that NICE ducked the issue of providing guidance on target levels of cholesterol for people who don’t yet have heart disease, but are at high risk.”

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