Amgen has announced a new partnership with two NHS organisations which aims to tackle the ‘silent killer’ of high cholesterol across the North West Coast of England.

The partnership with the North West Coast Innovation Agency and Imperial College Health Partners will work to address the health issues caused by high cholesterol in a geographical area that is heavily impacted by heart attacks, strokes and premature deaths caused by cardiovascular disease (CVD).

The two-year programme, ‘Control Cholesterol: Collaborating to Reduce Risk’, will adopt a quality management approach to improve health outcomes for people at high risk of experiencing CVD event due to raised cholesterol.

Amgen, together with its NHS partners, will work with primary care networks, clinical commissioning groups and GP practices to develop evidence-based solutions to cut costs and improve capacity.

The initiative will use early intervention to support people most at risk of a CVD event, improve care to help them remain healthy and potentially prevent them from suffering a life-threatening heart attack or stroke. According to Amgen, this will be achieved by improving pathways for these patients in the primary care setting to ensure they receive appropriate advice and treatment outside the hospital setting.

“Primary care plays a critical role in identifying patients at high risk of suffering cardiovascular events, and ensuring they are appropriately treated or referred on for timely treatment and optimal management,” said Tony Patrikios, executive medical director at Amgen UK and Ireland. “This collaboration brings together the collective scientific expertise, clinical experience, and deep understanding of cardiovascular disease of Amgen and our NHS partners, to provide a meaningful contribution to the NHS in achieving its Long Term Plan ambition of preventing up to 150,000 avoidable cardiovascular events over the next 10 years.”

NHS England has committed to achieving carbon neutrality for the NHS by 2040, with the aim of becoming the world’s first carbon net zero national health system.

Under the plans, the NHS is striving for an interim 80% reduction by 2028-2032, and it has also pledged net zero emissions within its wider supply chain by 2045, with an interim 80% reduction by 2036-2039.

Interventions to achieve carbon net zero includes introducing new ways of delivering care at or closer to home to reduce patient journeys to hospital, and the creation of the NHS fleet – including working towards road-testing a zero-emissions emergency ambulance by 2022.

“2020 has been dominated by COVID-19 and is the most pressing health emergency facing us. But undoubtedly climate change poses the most profound long-term threat to the health of the nation,” said Sir Simon Stevens, NHS chief executive. “It is not enough for the NHS to treat the problems caused by air pollution and climate change – from asthma to heart attacks and strokes – we need to play our part in tackling them at source.”