Millions of people in Britain are to be screened for the risk of heart disease and offered cholesterol-cutting drugs, according to new reports.
The government's drug watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), is expected to announce recommendations this week to screen people with a view to offering them statins.
Adults aged 40, 50 and 60 would be assessed and those who are considered to have a 20 per cent risk of developing heart disease over the next decade would be offered the drugs, according to media reports.
A Nice spokeswoman confirmed that the organisation was due to publish draft guidelines on modifying blood lipids within days.
Cholesterol is a type of lipid - fats found in the body - which, if present in too high a concentration, can cause deposits to build up on artery walls, increasing the risk of heart disease.
A pre-consultation document published two years ago highlights the fact that cholesterol can be cut by exercise and dietary changes as well as by drugs.
It emphasises that drugs have an important role and highlights how the existing British government targets recommend giving statins to people with more than a 30 per cent chance of developing coronary heart disease over 10 years.
But the document says there are currently variations in how doctors go about preventing cardiovascular disease and "uncertainty" in some quarters about managing cholesterol among those who have not yet developed heart disease.
While statins are already widely used, weekend reports said Nice would now recommend a mass screening programme which would potentially bring in millions of others not currently in line for statins.
A spokeswoman for Nice confirmed that draft guidelines on strategies for reducing blood lipids was due to be published this week but declined to comment on "speculation" about their contents.
Statins work by altering the activities of cholesterol-regulating enzymes in the liver.
Doctors usually use statins to reduce levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol to below three millimoles per litre (mmol/L).