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.
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.
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 −49.0 percentage points. The corresponding between-group least-squares mean absolute difference in LDL cholesterol was −132.1 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.
“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.”
The study was funded by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of evinacumab.
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