medwireNews: The flash glucose monitoring system FreeStyle Libre has received approval to be listed on the NHS Drug Tariff for the management of diabetes from 1st November 2017.
Subject to local authority, the system will be available for reimbursement via the NHS across England, Wales, NHS Scotland, and Social Care in Northern Ireland for patients with type 1 and 2 diabetes who intensively use insulin.
A Medtech Innovation Briefing for the system, which automatically reads glucose levels through a sensor the size of a £ 2 coin, was published by NICE in July. During this, experts agreed that the system would be cost-effective because of improved diabetes management, complications of which account for 80% of diabetes spending.
Evidence in support of the device includes two clinical trials and real-world evidence for more than 50,000 users showing people who use the system scan their glucose levels an average of at least 15 times per day, which in turn improves glucose measures and reduces estimated glycated hemoglobin levels.
By Lucy Piper
medwireNews is an independent medical news service provided by Springer Healthcare Limited. © Springer Healthcare Ltd; 2017
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