Listen to Story The highest dose of an experimental pill developed by Eli Lilly dramatically lowered an inherited form of high cholesterol in a mid-stage trial, according to data presented at a medical meeting on Monday. The drug, muvalaplin, reduced levels of lipoprotein(a), or Lp(a), by 70% using a traditional blood test and by nearly 86% based on a more specific test developed by the company, researchers reported at the American Heart Association meeting in Chicago. Lilly's drug is the only oral treatment in a field of several injectable therapies being tested to treat high Lp(a), a risk factor for heart disease that affects one in five individuals globally.
Unlike low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol that can be treated with diet and statins, there are no approved treatments for Lp(a) and few individuals even know they have it. Elevated Lp(a) can significantly increase the risk of heart attack, stroke, narrowing of the aortic valve, and peripheral artery disease, a buildup of fatty plaques in the arteries. Individuals of African and South Asian ancestry are at highest risk.
The trial compared three daily doses of muvalaplin - 10, 60 and 240 milligrams - with a placebo in 233 adults with high levels of Lp(a). Researchers tested Lp(a) levels using a traditional blood test and a new method that measures levels of intact Lp(a) particles in the blood. Muvalaplin reduced Lp(a) by 47.
6% at 10 mg, 81.7% at 60 mg and 85.8% on 240 mg as measured by the int.
