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THURSDAY, Aug. 20, 2020 (HealthDay News) — For patients with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia, evinacumab lowers low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels, according to a study published in the Aug. 20 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Frederick J. Raal, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and colleagues conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial involving 65 patients with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia who received stable lipid-lowering therapy. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either an intravenous infusion of evinacumab every four weeks or placebo.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that patients in the evinacumab group had a relative reduction in LDL cholesterol level of 47.1 percent from baseline compared with a 1.9 percent increase in the placebo group at week 24, for a between-group least-squares mean difference of \u221249.0 percentage points. The corresponding between-group least-squares mean absolute difference in LDL cholesterol was \u2212132.1 mg\/dL. In patients with null-null variants and in those with non-null variants, the LDL cholesterol level was lower in the evinacumab group versus the placebo group. The two groups had similar adverse events.<\/p>\n
“Reductions in the levels of LDL cholesterol and apolipoprotein B from baseline to week 24 were observed with evinacumab both in patients with null-null variants and in those with non-null variants,” the authors write. “This finding is important because patients with null-null variants have a higher cardiovascular risk.”<\/p>\n
The study was funded by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of evinacumab.<\/p>\n
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