NICE recommends Entresto (sacubitril + valsartan) to treat chronic heart failure.-Novartis
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended in final draft guidance Entresto (sacubitril + valsartan) from Novartis as an option for treating symptomatic chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction in adult patients with New York Heart Association class II to IV symptoms, but limiting its use to those with a left ventricular ejection fraction of 35% or less.
Comment:The drug is the first treatment shown to offer a significant mortality benefit over an ACE-inhibitor; with data from the 8,442 patient PARADIGM-HF demonstrating that cardiovascular deaths were reduced by 20% versus enalapril, as well as heart failure hospitalisations and all-cause mortality by 21% and 16%, respectively.
Comment: The limitation that sacubitril/valsartan should only be offered to patients with a left ventricular ejection fraction of 35% or less contrasts to recent guidance from the Scottish Medicines Consortium, which accepted sacubitril/valsartan under its full licensed indication with no restrictions .