In a new study, researchers found that a cholesterol-lowering drug alirocumab could reduce the chance of having a second heart attack or stroke.
People who have suffered a recent heart attack or threatened heart attack are less likely to have another heart attack or stroke.
The research was done by a team from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and fellow scientists around the world.
Alirocumab is in the class of drugs called PCSK9 antibodies.
It works by increasing receptors on the liver that attract particles of LDL cholesterol from the blood and break them down.
Alirocumab was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2015 as a treatment for high cholesterol.
It has only now been shown to also reduce the risk of heart disease events and stroke.
In the new study, the team examined 18,924 patients from 57 countries.
These people were at least 40-years-old, had been hospitalized with a heart attack or threatened heart attack, and had high levels of LDL cholesterol despite taking high doses of statins.
Half of the patients received alirocumab by self-injection under the skin every two weeks, and the other half received placebo injections.
The patients were followed for about three years.
The researchers found that the drug could decrease blood levels of LDL or ‘bad’ cholesterol by 50%, even when patients are already taking a statin.
In people taking alirocumab, LDL cholesterol levels were 40 to 66 mg per deciliter; in people who took a placebo, the LDL cholesterol levels were 93 to 103 mg per deciliter.
In addition, the risk of a second heart attack or stroke decreased by about 15% in the alirocumab group.
The researchers say that statins have been the main cholesterol-lowering drugs for heart patients for more than 30 years, and they are very effective.
The new findings show that doctors could improve the health outcomes after a heart attack by adding alirocumab to statins in patients.
One author of the study is Gregory Schwartz MD, Ph.D., professor of medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
The study is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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