Amgen cholesterol drug appears safe, cut LDL 52 percent at 1 year: study

By Bill Berkrot and Ransdell Pierson DALLAS (Reuters) – Amgen Inc's experimental heart medicine from a closely watched new class of drugs called PCSK9 inhibitors lowered "bad" LDL cholesterol 52 percent after one year with no major increase in serious adverse side effects compared with standard drugs, such as statins, according to data from a study. The clinical trial of the drug, evolocumab, marks the first data looking at 52 weeks of use for the new class of injectable biotech medicines seen as potentially the biggest advance in the field of cholesterol therapy in many years. Several companies are developing the drugs, which work by blocking a protein that prevents the liver from removing LDL cholesterol from blood. In addition to Amgen, Pfizer Inc and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc in partnership with Sanofi are in advanced stages of testing PCSK9 inhibitors.