How Do the PCSK9 Inhibitors Work?
PCSK9 is a protein made in the liver.
If your body makes too much, it can lead to heart disease.
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PCSK9 inhibitors can protect you from cardiovascular disorders.
Therefore, PCSK9 limits the ability of the liver to remove LDL cholesterol from the bloodstream.
Drug companies instantly launched into a race to develop PCSK9 inhibitors.
It is impressive that this focused effort so rapidly led to the development and approval of effective PCSK9 inhibitors.
Patients were randomized to receive either a PCSK9 inhibitor along with a statin drug, or astatin drugalone.
Note thatno patients were treated only with the PCSK9 inhibitor.All study participants received statins.
The incidence of death was not significantly reduced.
The incidence ofcognitive problems, while low, has raised some cautionary flags.
Again, longer term follow-up is needed to get a better handle on this important question.
New England Journal of Medicine.
doi:10.1001/jama.2016.16951
Robinson JG, Farnier M, Krempf M, et al.
Lowering LDL cholesterol is good, but how and in whom?N Engl J Med2015; doi:10.1056/NEJM1502192
