London - A breakthrough drug can slash levels of bad cholesterol by half without the side effects of statins, according to a major study.
Repatha is in a race to become the first cholesterol-busting medication since statins were invented in the 1980s.
It is one of two drugs vying to be made available on the NHS as an alternative to statins.
A six-month course of Repatha led to ‘significantly greater reductions’ of ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol than existing statin alternatives, according to trial results presented at a US medical conference yesterday.
Statin pills – credited with cutting heart attack and stroke risk for those with high cholesterol – are taken daily by more than 7 million patients. But many GPs are worried about over-prescription that they say needlessly exposes people to muscle pain and diabetes.
The researchers – including experts from the universities of Oxford and Glasgow – said up to a fifth of those who take statins have to stop because of muscle pain.
Experts hope Repatha will mean those who cannot tolerate the side effects can take an effective drug.
Writing in the JAMA medical journal, they said: ‘Patients with muscle-related intolerance often refuse to take statins despite elevated LDL cholesterol levels and a high risk of major cardiovascular events.’
They said patients who suffer muscle pain are given very low doses of statins or an older drug called ezetimibe – but these rarely reduce cholesterol enough.
The researchers, who presented their paper at the American College of Cardiology conference in Chicago, gave 218 patients either Repatha or ezetimibe. They found that after 24 weeks the patients who took Repatha saw levels of LDL cholesterol drop 52.8 per cent, compared with a drop of 16.7 per cent from ezetimibe.
Of those given Repatha, only 13 per cent reported muscle pain, and just one stopped treatment because it was intolerable.
Research had found 45 per cent of patients at high risk of cardiovascular disease cannot use statins to adequately lower cholesterol. Repatha, also called evolocumab, was approved as a safe and effective treatment by the European Medicines Agency last summer.
But NHS drugs rationing watchdog NICE initially said it was not convinced the drug would reduce heart attacks and strokes.
Officials have indicated they may change the decision, with final guidance issued later this month.
The officials said in a draft document that they were considering Repatha – made by drugs giant Amgen – for people who have severe heart problems but could not cope with statins.
It removes ‘bad’ cholesterol by blocking PCSK9, a naturally occurring protein that interferes with the liver’s ability to remove cholesterol from the blood. Amgen is in a race against rival Sanofi, which is trying to get its own PCSK9-inhibitor, called Praluent or alirocumab, approved on the NHS.
Others point out Repatha has its own side effects – the common cold in 5 per cent of patients, throat infections in 3 per cent and back pain in 3 per cent.
Professor Liam Smeeth of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, warned that PCSK9-inhibitors had not been shown to protect against heart disease.
Daily Mail