High cholesterol level is often seen as a bane of good health with associated illnesses such as heart disease and stroke known to cause premature death. A new drug appears to have the solution to this problem.
Researchers revealed that a new drug called Alirocumab significantly boosts the effects of statins helping reduce bad cholesterol to the levels of a baby.
The cholesterol-lowering drug statin can already reduce the body's level of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, also known as the "bad" cholesterol, by up to 50 percent. However, the new drug, which is also dubbed as the "Pac-man drug" from the popular arcade game, also reduces the levels further by up to 50 percent.
In a new global study, Alirocumab was shown to reduce harmful cholesterol in over a third of the participants already taking statins leading to the experimental drug being hailed as an important discovery that can aid in the fight against heart attacks and stroke.
Kausik Ray, an investigator in the drug's trial, said that the results of the study showed that the medication could be one of the most important drug developments that address problems with dangerous blood fats since statins were introduced.
For the clinical trial of the drug presented at the American Heart Association scientific meeting in Chicago, the researchers involved 2,338 patients who had experienced a heart attack or stroke, or who had elevated risks for high cholesterol.
Of these participants, 788 received placebo while 1,550 received Alirocumab along with statin. The Pac-man drug was injected twice a month by the participants during the trial. Within a year, 562 of those in the Alirocumab-statin group reduced their cholesterol to less than the level of a baby's.
Ray explained that the drug has been called the Pac-man drug because just like in the 1980's video game, Alirocumab, which could eventually be administered via injection, "gobbles up" a protein and enables the body to get rid of bad cholesterol more effectively and while the drug could not reduce a person's risks for heart disease comparable to that of a baby's, it can reduce the risks.
"Alirocumab, when used alongside a statin, will dramatically lower cholesterol. In fact, it has the power to reduce it to the level... you find in a newborn," Ray said. "It cannot reduce your risk of heart disease to that of a newborn - we are talking about adult bodies here - but it can certainly cut the risk."
