Amgen drug meets goal for those with high genetic cholesterol

Amgen Inc said its experimental new type of cholesterol-fighting drug met the primary goal of a late-stage trial by slashing “bad” LDL cholesterol levels in patients with a genetic tendency towards high levels of the artery-clogging fat. Amgen said on Monday patients given its injectable drug evolocumab once a month, on top of standard daily statin treatments, showed “clinically meaningful” improvement compared with taking statins alone after 12 weeks of treatment. The Phase 3 study, called TESLA, involved 49 adult and adolescent patients with a rare condition called homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia. The condition, seen in about one in a million individuals, can cause a four-fold increase in levels of LDL cholesterol, greatly raising the risk of heart disease.