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Lipid-Lowering Drug Therapy for CVD Prevention: Looking into the Future

  • Lipid Abnormalities and Cardiovascular Prevention (G De Backer, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Over the past three decades, statins have become first-line treatment for reducing LDL cholesterol (LDL-C) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). They have provided a clear, robust, and reproducible relationship between the absolute LDL-C reduction and the decrease in CVD; every 1 mmol/L (∼40 mg/dL) in LDL-C reduction results in a 22 % decrease in CVD events. This relationship has recently been extended to reduction in LDL-C with a non-statin, ezetimibe, on top of statin therapy, further consolidating LDL-C as the cornerstone in CVD risk reduction. Despite these two effective and safe LDL-C-lowering drugs, there remains a need for additional drugs to reduce LDL-C, the focus of this review which covers agents which produce sufficient LDL-C reduction to potentially help address this unmet need and are either recently approved or currently in clinical trials.

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Compliance with Ethics Guidelines

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Conflict of Interest

Evan A. Stein has received honoraria for consulting on the development of PCSK9 inhibitors from Amgen, Regeneron/Sanofi, Genentech/Roche, and BMS/Adnectin. He is a co-inventor of a use patent owned by Amgen for the use of PCSK9 monoclonal antibodies in homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia for which he receives no financial compensation. He also sits on the scientific advisory board for Catabasis, CymaBay, and Gemphire and has been a consultant for AstraZeneca.

Frederick J. Raal reports grants from the University of Witwatersrand, has received consulting fees from Amgen and Sanofi related to PCSK9 inhibitors and from Genzyme related to apolipoprotein B inhibitors, and has received personal fees and non-financial support from AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Merck.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Metabolic and Atherosclerosis Research Center, 5355 Medpace Way, Cincinnati, OH, 45227, USA

    Evan A. Stein

  2. Department of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 7 York Rd, Parktown, 2193, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Frederick J. Raal

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  1. Evan A. Stein
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Correspondence to Evan A. Stein.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Lipid Abnormalities and Cardiovascular Prevention

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Stein, E.A., Raal, F.J. Lipid-Lowering Drug Therapy for CVD Prevention: Looking into the Future. Curr Cardiol Rep 17, 104 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11886-015-0659-8

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