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An End to Heart Disease? Not Quite
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/20/health/ldl-cholesterol-heart-disease-drugs-pcsk9-inhibitors.html

On Friday, investigators reported the results of a highly anticipated trial of a PCSK9 inhibitor called evolocumab (brand name Repatha). This medication reduced LDL levels to an almost unfathomable 30 mg/dl from about 90 mg/dl on average, which is typically considered low.

Over about two years of study, the researchers found that the new drug, when added to statin therapy, further reduced the risk of heart attack or stroke by about 15 percent. For about every 70 people treated with the drug, one person benefited in this way. This is not far off the size of the benefit that statins provide.

So the drug works, which is good news for patients. And no safety concerns emerged. But the applause from heart experts has been muted, because expectations were so much higher. Their hope had been that drastically low LDL cholesterol levels would make it difficult — or even impossible — to have a heart attack.