Neovasc Inc. announced that the United Kingdom's Interventional Procedures Programme at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence ("NICE") has issued guidance supporting the implantation of the Neovasc ReducerTM ("Reducer") in appropriate patients suffering from refractory angina, a painful and debilitating condition that causes chest pain when other treatment options have failed or are not possible. NICE's current guideline on stable angina describes recommendations on managing stable angina that has not responded to treatment. For these stable angina patients who are refractory to treatment, NICE has limited its recommendations to addressing the psychological factors of patients' pain. Prior to the new guidance supporting coronary sinus reduction, NICE has not supported any therapeutic interventions. NICE's recommendation is important, as it supports the very first therapeutic intervention for stable angina patients who have not responded to treatment. An independent advisory committee is responsible for making the interventional procedures recommendations. The committee includes both health professionals and people familiar with the issues that can affect patients and caregivers. The coronary sinus narrowing device was recommended with "Special Arrangements", which according to NICE, ".is often made when the procedure is considered to be emerging practice in the National Health Service." It places emphasis on the need for informed consent and suggests that clinicians using these procedures should collect data and enter them into a national database. The guidance further recommends that patient selection should be done by a multidisciplinary team and the procedure should only be done in centers by interventional cardiologists with specific training in the technique.