Amgen's Repatha Unclogs Arteries in Imaging Study - Drug Discovery and Development

Amgen announced good news for its cholesterol drug Repatha at the annual American Heart Association meeting taking place in New Orleans.

The drug taken in conjunction with a statin simultaneously caused a decline in artery-clogging plaques in a majority of high-risk heart patients after 18 months of treatment while also lowering levels of LDL cholesterol down to extremely low levels, reported Reuters.

Investigators running this trial featuring 968 patients compared the Repatha combination therapy against statins alone to determine the impact these treatments could have on the plaques that can play a role in causing heart attacks.

Participants in this experiment were diagnosed with symptomatic heart disease and blockages of 20 percent to 50 percent in the tested artery, according to Reuters. An ultrasound probe was placed inside the diseased artery in order to collect these plaque measurements.

Results revealed a little over 64 percent of patients taking the combination plaque therapy experienced plaque regression versus an approximate 47.3 percent of patients taking just the statin.

Amgen previously said the study was a success, but this is the first time the company reported the specific percentage of patients who experienced a decrease of the artery-clogging plaques that cause heart disease as well as identifying the magnitude of plaque regression.

Repatha belongs to a class of drugs called PCKS9 inhibitors, which have come under scrutiny for their list prices of $14,000 a year.

Insurers have restricted their coverage because of the belief that these drugs are too expensive if they can only lower cholesterol, wrote Bloomberg. However, this new data on Repatha could change the perception of insurers and pharmacy benefits potentially making it easier to access these drugs.