Resource impact statement
No significant resource impact is anticipated
NICE has recommended fenfluramine as an add-on to other antiseizure medicines for treating seizures associated with Dravet syndrome in people aged 2 years and older, only if:
- seizures have not been controlled after trying 2 or more antiseizure medicines
- the frequency of convulsive seizures is checked every 6 months, and fenfluramine is stopped if it has not fallen by at least 30% compared with the 6 months before starting treatment
- the company provides fenfluramine according to the commercial arrangement.
This recommendation is not intended to affect treatment with fenfluramine that was started in the NHS before this guidance was published. People having treatment outside this recommendation may continue without change to the funding arrangements in place for them before this guidance was published, until they and their NHS clinician consider it appropriate to stop. For children and young people, this decision should be made jointly by the clinician and the child or young person, or their parents or carers.
We do not expect this guidance to have a significant impact on resources; that is, the resource impact of implementing the recommendations in England will be less than £5 million per year (or £9,000 per 100,000 population).
This is because the technology is a further treatment option and the population size is small.
The use of fenfluramine added to standard care drugs may reduce the number of convulsive seizures. However, any savings as a result are not expected to be significant at a national level.
Fenfluramine has a discount that is commercial in confidence. It is the company’s responsibility to let relevant NHS organisations know details of the discount.
This technology is commissioned by NHS England. Providers are tertiary care providers and NHS hospital trusts.
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