A new study finds that a drug can replace statins for those who can’t tolerate them, a promising finding for the millions of people at risk of heart disease.
the study, published In the New England Journal of Medicine Saturday, it found that in patients with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, bempedoic acid was found to reduce heart-related complications, such as heart attacks, or the need for procedures such as bypass surgery or stent placement.
“I take care of these patients,” cardiologist Steven Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic, who led the study, told CBS News. “They say, Dr. Nissen, I know I need to lower my cholesterol. I’ve tried all these statins. My muscles hurt. I can’t take these.”
An editorial accompanying the study called the results “compelling” and said it “will and should increase the use of bempedoic acid” in appropriate patients.
“Let me first tell you what the drug didn’t do,” Dr. Nissen said when asked about the potential side effects of bempedoic acid. “It didn’t cause muscle pain. That was very significant. It increased the risk of gout by about 1 percent. It also increased the risk of gallstones by about 1 percent. Be especially serious.”
Bempedoic acid was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2020 as a way to reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels.
“Yes, it’s approved, but it’s not widely used,” Dr. Nissen said. “If you really want a drug to be widely used, it has to show evidence of benefit for the things that really matter. The kind of bad things that have happened to hypercholesterolemic patients that we now know can be reduced with bempedoic acid. That is what now gives the drug the opportunity to be paid for by its payers.” and to be more accessible to patients.
Medications such as the PCSK9 inhibitors and ezetimibe are other alternatives to statins, but Dr. Nissen said bempedoic acid is an important addition.
“It will definitely change the practice of medicine,” Dr. Nessen said of bempedoic acid.
John Labock
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