New drug 'may turn back the clock on heart disease'

[DainBramaged]

A new cholesterol drug that appears to be the most potent ever cleared a critical safety hurdle today, its potency prompting doctors to predict that it may conquer heart disease.
The drug, AnacEtrapib, is the first in a new class of drugs designed to clear dangerous cholesterol from the arteries.

In an 18-month study of 1,623 heart disease patients, the drug lowered bad cholesterol, or LDL, by 40% and raised good cholesterol, HDL, by an "unprecedented" 138% on top of the levels reached by the best available therapy, says lead investigator Christopher Cannon, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

Doctors caution that AnacEtrapib is still experimental and must be tested in a larger trial. But that hasn't dimmed their enthusiasm. "If this pans out," Cannon says, "it may turn back the clock on heart disease and push it off the top of the list as the leading killer."

Usually skeptical doctors hailed the findings."This is just incredible," says Robert Eckel, of the University of Colorado School of Medicine. "It's like a rocket that landed on Jupiter rather than the moon."

The study is the latest chapter in a tale dating back decades to the discovery that patients with lots of HDL have lower levels of heart disease. In 1978, Australian Philip Barter, an author of the study and director of the Heart Research Institute in Sydney, found a key to the puzzle called CETP. Research showed that blocking this protein boosts HDL levels.

http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/health/medical/heartdisease/2010-11-17-miracle-cholesterol-drug_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip


ALWAYS taken with a grain of salt.


Having had absurd levels all of my life (250-290 total) no matter what my eating habits were, this is a welcome sign.

[Le Taz Hot]

1. And we'll be able to get it

at the bargain basement price of $500.00 per pill.

[leftyladyfrommo]

2. Yea.

That is exactly what will happen.

Or, they will do long term trials and find out that it will kill you if you take it very long.

[WinkyDink]

7. Medicare-age citizens will be deemed "not cost-effective".

[Ikonoklast]

8. The good news is you only have to take one a year.

The bad news is the pill is shown here actual size:

[AngryAmish]

3. But will it cause fewer heart attacks and lengthen life?

Lipitor and the ilk (statins) lower cholesterol and also makes people have fewer heart attacks, strokes and live longer (statistically over a population taking the drug).

There are drugs that lower cholesterol more but do not make people have fewer cardiovascular problems or lengthen life.

And since correlation is not causation, is it really the lowering of cholesterol that gives us fewer heart attacks and the ilk?

We do not know. But people are trying desperately to find out. Statins may also have an anti-inflammatory effect that causes the fewer heart attacks.

[mistertrickster]

4. Now . . . if they could only link cholestrol to actual . . . uh . . . heart disease. nt

[StandingInLeftField]

5. Good news!

(Fingers crossed...)

I hope I'll be able to afford it.

[Kingofalldems]

6. Gimme some now!

Excellent.

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. the article implies that Merck is the creator of the drug?