AstraZeneca’s Brilique (ticagrelor) has been recommended in final guidance, in combination with aspirin for up to a year, as an option to treat adults with acute coronary syndromes (ACS).

NICE has also recommended the treatment as a treatment option for people admitted to hospital with unstable angina.

Professor Carole Longson, NICE Health Technology Evaluation Centre Director, says that evidence shows Brilique is “effective at reducing myocardial infarction (MI) and deaths from cardiovascular causes”.

Every year in England, around 200,000 people are diagnosed with ACS, of whom approximately 75% have unstable angina or Non-ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI).

The medication works by reducing or preventing blood clots, so that the flow to the heart muscle can be maintained to prevent further damage. It is licensed for the treatment of people with ACS who are managed medically or who are to undergo percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) – a procedure to widen narrowed arteries in the heart.

The guidance recommends the use of anti-platelets treatment, in combination with aspirin, as a treatment option in people with STEMI who are to undergo PCI and in people with NSTEMI.

“Today’s guidance, in recommending the use of ticagrelor where clinically appropriate, is an affirmation of that effectiveness and good news for patients with ACS, wherever they live in England and Wales, because it increases the number of treatment options available to them,” said Professor Carole Longson, NICE Health Technology Evaluation Centre Director.

The Medicine Company’s Angiox (bivalirudin) has been recommended by NICE for the treatment of a type of heart attack called ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).

NICE’s independent Appraisal Committee concluded that the treatment is more effective and less costly than other options to treat the condition.

Dr Carole Longson, NICE Health Technology Evaluation Centre Director, says the NHS has been provided with “another important tool” to treat people more effectively.

Approximately 180,000 people in the UK are admitted to hospital after suffering a heart attack and nearly 30,000 people in England and Wales will die as a result.

STEMI is caused by the narrowing and blockage of the coronary artery that delivers blood to the heart. Current treatments aim to re-open the blocked artery and include primary PCI, a surgical procedure where either fine wires, balloons or stents are inserted to disrupt the blood clot.

Angiox is a type of anticoagulant that is given intravenously at the time of the PCI, together with aspirin and clopidogrel, to prevent blood from clotting during the procedure.

“The independent committee that advises NICE considered that, on the basis of the available evidence, bivalirudin, in combination with clopidogrel and aspirin, is both more effective and less expensive than treatment with a glycoprotein inhibitor plus heparin,” said Dr Longson.

“It is also associated with a lower incidence of major bleeding events compared with heparin and glycoprotein inhibitors.”