New drug bumps up good cholesterol
Anacetrapib lowers the bad stuff, too, new test indicates
By Nathan Seppa
CHICAGO — An experimental drug shows the ability to more than double a person’s good cholesterol score, potentially filling a huge gap in cardiovascular care, scientists report. If the findings hold up in a larger trial, the drug, called anacetrapib, stands poised to become the best medication yet for boosting levels of the heart-disease preventer HDL.
“This is a very exciting era we are entering,” said Christopher Cannon, a cardiologist at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He presented the findings at a meeting of the American Heart Association on November 17, the same day they appeared online in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“These preliminary data are very promising,” agreed Sidney Smith, a cardiologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a past president of the AHA. “They show dramatic differences in HDL.” High-density lipoprotein, or HDL, ushers low-density bad cholesterol, or LDL, out of the blood. High levels of HDL are closely associated with low risk of heart attack and stroke.
Cannon and his colleagues randomly assigned 1,623 people, average age 63, who had heart disease to receive either anacetrapib or a placebo for 18 months. All were already taking a statin drug to lower LDL. In the anacetrapib group, HDL levels shot up from an average of 41 milligrams per deciliter of blood to 101 mg/dl within the first few weeks of the study and stayed there. Anacetrapib also lowered LDL from an average of 81 mg/dl to around 45 mg/dl. People who received a placebo experienced very slight changes in their HDL and LDL scores.