On Tuesday, an FDA committee voted to recommend approval for the first new drug in a generation to lower cholesterol.<\/p>\n
After a lifetime battling high cholesterol, Peggy O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Connor had a heart attack three years ago at age 56. But she couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tolerate statins to lower her bad cholesterol.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When I started on the statin I started having muscle spasms and pain,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Connor.<\/p>\n In typical patients, a high dose of statin can lower bad cholesterol up to 50% percent. But there are millions of people with very high cholesterol like O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Connor who can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tolerate statins, or for whom statins just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work.<\/p>\n \n Researchers say a new type of medication may work well for patients who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t respond to statins for high cholesterol. CBS News\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Danielle Notting\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\n <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n A year and a half ago, she enrolled in a clinical trial of a drug called Alirocumab.<\/p>\n The medication is injected twice a month, and it works by blocking the action of a protein, improving the liver\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ability to remove bad cholesterol or LDL from the bloodstream. In clinical trials the drug lowered LDL levels by more than 60%.<\/p>\n A new drug could replace statins for some patients battling high cholesterol levels.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n Over the last year and a half, O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Connor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bad cholesterol has dropped by more than 100 points.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153My highest number was 170,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153My number a few weeks ago was 50.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n Dr. Steve Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic is testing other drugs in this class. Although the drug has not yet been shown to prevent heart attacks or stroke, he believes it will save lives.<\/p>\n \n There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a new cholesterol drug that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s showing promising results in the fight against heart disease. And at the same time, doctors are recommendin\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\n <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If we inhibit that protein for long periods of time getting LDL cholesterol down as low as 30 or 40 that it may well turn cardiovascular disease no longer into the number one killer of men and women,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n The advisory committee will consider a similar drug tomorrow and the FDA could approve them for use later this year.<\/p>\n These drugs are biologics, so they will be much more expensive than statins, costing around $10,000 a year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Tuesday, an FDA committee voted to recommend approval for the first new drug in a generation to lower cholesterol. After a lifetime battling high cholesterol, Peggy O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Connor had a heart attack three years ago at age 56. But she couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tolerate statins to lower her bad cholesterol. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When I started on the statin I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15048\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}New cholesterol drugs could offer alternative to statins<\/h3>\n
New drugs show promise against heart disease<\/h3>\n