Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD: Drugs known as statins are the first-choice treatment for those having high cholesterol, but hundreds of thousands of people who can’t or won’t take those pills due to the side effects might be pleased to know about having another option.
In a recent major study, a different kind of cholesterol-lowering medicine named Nexletol reduced the risk of heart attacks and some other cardiovascular issues in patients who can’t take statins, researchers reported Saturday.
Doctors have already prescribed the drug, known chemically as bempedoic acid, to be utilized together with a statin to help certain high-risk patients to lower their cholesterol further. A recent study tested Nexletol without the statin combination and provided the first evidence that it also lowers the risk of cholesterol-caused health problems.
New pill as alternate for statins
Statins are considered “the cornerstone of cholesterol-lowering therapies,” remarked Dr. Steven Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic, who led the research study.
However, patients who can’t take those proven pills “are very needy; they’re highly difficult to treat,” he said. This new option “will have a significant impact on public health.”
Excessive so-called LDL or “bad” cholesterol can block arteries, resulting in strokes and heart attacks. Statin pills like Crestor and Lipitor, or their cheap equivalents of the same generic, are the mainstay for lowering the level of cholesterol and preventing heart disease or treating those patients who already have it.
But some patients face serious muscle pain within the body from statins. While it’s not vivid exactly how often that happens, however, it is estimated that about 10% of people who’d otherwise qualify for these pills can’t or won’t take them. They have very few options, comprising pricey cholesterol-lowering shots and another type of pill sold as Zetia.
Nexletol also checks cholesterol production in the liver, however, in a different way than statins and without that muscle side effect.
The new five-year study examined nearly 14,000 people who were unable to handle more than a very low dose of a statin. Half of them got daily Nexletol, and the rest a dummy pill.
The key findings of the study
Nexletol-treated patients had about 13% lower risk of a group of major cardiac issues. Then researchers teased apart those different situations and found a 23 percent reduced risk of a heart attack, a major impact. There wasn’t a difference in the number of deaths, which researchers couldn’t explain but remarked might require longer to detect.
The said data was appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented on Saturday at a gathering of the American College of Cardiology. The said study was funded and sponsored by Nexletol maker Esperion Therapeutics.
Dr. John H. Alexander of Duke University, who wasn’t part of the study, stated in the journal that the results were compelling, adding that they “will and should” spur usage of the drug by people unwilling or unable to use statins.
“It is premature, however, to accept bempedoic acid as a propoer alternate option to statins,” he said. “Given the significant evidence of the vascular benefits,” statins still remain the top pick for most patients.
