Cholesterol jab ‘can slash heart att ack risk by a quarter’

A CHOLESTEROL-lowering jab has been shown to reduce the chance of a heart attack by up to a quarter.

Two years ago drugs watchdog Nice approved alirocumab for treatment on the NHS for people who could not tolerate statins and those with a family history of high cholesterol. Now scientists have found that the £4,400-a-year treatment cuts the odds of a heart attack by up to 24 per cent.

The findings are from a trial of 19,000 patients, results of which were presented at a US cardiology conference last month.

All the patients involved had experienced a heart attack or another serious heart problem before. The trial found that, overall, alirocumab – also known by its brand name Praluent – cut the risk of a ‘major adverse cardiovascular event’ by 15 per cent. But among those with the highest cholesterol levels, who were given Praluent together with high strength statins, it cut the risk by 24 per cent.

The drug, taken by injection every two or four weeks, is a joint development between firms Sanofi and Regeneron.

Dr George Yancopoulos of Regeneron said many people who had experienced a first heart attack had ‘an urgent need’ to reduce their cholesterol levels. He said: ‘In this trial, such patients who received Praluent on top of maximally tolerated statins had important reductions in their risk.’