Experimental Drugs Target and Lower "Bad" Cholesterol Alone

New and experimental cholesterol drugs designed to specifically target and lower "bad" cholesterol have shown promise in recent trials, offering hope for people who don't get enough help from standard cholesterol treatments or simply cannot tolerate the chemical makeup of statin-based drugs.

Amgen Inc.'s drug, evolocumab, is designed to lower levels of low-density lipoproteins (LDL) cholesterol, or "bad" cholesterol, while leaving "good" cholesterol levels largely unaffected. Cholesterol isn't exactly "bad." It is an essential fat that supports the membranes of your body's cells. However, LDL cholesterol is the cholesterol that has the unfortunate tendency to deposit itself on the walls of arteries, encouraging the formation of plaque and leading to heart attack and even stroke, which is why it has been designated as "bad."

The results of the first large-scale testing of this medication was presented at the American College of Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session in Washington D.C. this past weekend.

The results of three studies that compared evolocumab's effect at varying dosage levels has shown that it can lower LDL cholesterol levels in patients by 55 to 66 percent from a baseline level. When compared to another cholesterol medication, Zetia, evolocumab proved to be equally effective.

This is good news for patients who have not seen promising results from current cholesterol medications, particularly statins, which are recommended for use in approximately 56 million Americans by the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association. Statins have been deemed relatively safe for the majority of Americans, but drug allergies can make the medication intolerable for some cholesterol sufferers, who would require additional options.

An additional option, evolocumad may be, but experts at the ACC are looking for more than just promising cholesterol-lowering results.

In recent studies, statins have proven that they not only lower cholesterol but also reduce heart attack and cardiovascular disease (CVD) death rates. This is the true heart of the matter, as the main concern of high-cholesterol patients in an increased risk of CVD.

According to the recent presentation to the ACC, more studies looking into ecolocumd's effect on risk and death rates are already underway, but the results won't be released for some time.

Statins have also proven effective in other areas as well, even being a potential use as treatments for multiple sclerosis and even delirium. It remains to be seen if this new medication shows the same promise.

As these results have yet to be published in a scientific peer-reviewed paper, it is recommended that they be viewed as preliminary findings.