The drug evinacumab has successfully passed the second phase of clinical trials in humans. It allows you to halve cholesterol levels even in those, who do not benefit from standard statin therapy.
It can be difficult to lower cholesterol levels, but a new monoclonal antibody drug can lower cholesterol levels even in severe pathologies
Cholesterol itself is an essential component of cells. It can be divided into two forms – high density lipoprotein (HDL) or “good” cholesterol and low density lipoprotein (LDL), which is also called “bad” cholesterol. It is called bad because at high concentrations of LDL in the blood, it can cause life-threatening cardiovascular disease.
Today, doctors use statins, inhibitors of the PCSK9 protein, and a drug that reduces the amount of cholesterol absorbed through the small intestine to lower cholesterol levels. The last two compounds from the above are considered the most powerful, but even their effect is not enough to treat people with familial hypercholesterolemia.
New experimental drug evinacumab, according to results its clinical trials, can lower LDL levels even in these patients. The drug is a human monoclonal antibody that inhibits angiopoietin-like protein 3. All drugs in use today lower cholesterol levels by blocking the LDL receptor gene, but evinacumab follows a different, more efficient pathway.
In the second phase of clinical trials of evinacumab, scientists conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled study in which 272 patients with hypercholesterolemia participated. The drug and placebo were administered either subcutaneously or intravenously at different doses and at different intervals between injections. After 16 weeks, participants who received weekly 450 mg subcutaneous injections of evinacumab had their LDL cholesterol levels 56% lower than those in the placebo group. Now the drug has to go through the third phase of clinical trials before it can be used in general practice.
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