SAN DIEGO — New research boosts hope that a highly anticipated, experimental class of cholesterol drugs can greatly lower the risk for heart attacks, death and other heart-related problems. The government will decide this summer whether to allow two of these drugs on the market.
People taking one of these drugs had half the risk of dying or suffering a heart problem compared with others who were given usual care — typically one of the statin drugs such as Lipitor or Zocor, doctors found. Many people cannot tolerate statins or get enough help from them, so new medicines are badly needed.
The results are “really impressive and very encouraging” for the new drugs, said one independent expert, Dr. Judith Hochman of NYU Langone Medical Center.
The studies were published online Sunday by the New England Journal of Medicine and discussed at an American College of Cardiology conference in San Diego.
The drugs are evolocumab, which Amgen Inc. wants to call Repatha, and alirocumab, which Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Sanofi SA have named Praluent. They lower LDL or bad cholesterol more powerfully and in a different way than existing drugs, by blocking PCSK9, a substance that interferes with the liver’s ability to remove cholesterol from the blood.
