“The drug was safe and well-tolerated,” said lead study author Marc Sabatine, chair of cardiovascular medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “This is very expensive stuff,” said Valentin Fuster, physician in chief at Mount Sinai Medical Hospital in New York. Fuster also noted that in absolute numbers, the drug saved about two percent of lives. “The biggest challenge is getting it covered by insurance,” Suzanne Steinbaum, director of women’s heart health at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, told Agence France-Presse. The study showed evolocumab reduced LDL cholesterol by 59 percent, from a median of 92 to 30 mg/dL.

Source: Manila Times March 18, 2017 13:18 UTC