“Bempedoic acid represents a new effective tool in the therapeutic armamentarium especially for patients at higher cardiovascular risk who have not achieved their therapeutic goals despite ongoing lipid-lowering therapies, and for intolerant patients. This drug is intelligent, it has the advantage of being able to be associated with any lipid-lowering therapy, of having a good tolerability profile and of being easily accessible since it can be prescribed by both specialists and general practitioners”. As Fulvio Colivicchi, president of the National Association of hospital cardiologists (Anmco) speaking at the press conference “Add to reduce: bempedoic acid for those who do not reach the C-Ldl targets”, held at the Luigi Sturzo Institute, during which bempedoic acid, the new first-in-class anti-cholesterol produced by Daiichi Sankyo, was presented.
“Unfortunately, our population, like the population of almost all Western countries, has a rather high incidence of hypercholesterolemia – explains to beraking latest news Salute Colivicchi, who is also director of Cardiology at the San Filippo Neri hospital in Rome -. In Italy in the age group between 35 and 80 years over 45% have cholesterol values that can be considered pathological“. An aspect that is not insignificant because hypercholesterolemia represents the main cause in the development of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (heart attack, stroke). Therefore, “High cholesterol is a major public health problem – remarked Colivicchi – . Hence the importance of bempedoic acid, since the management of hypercholesterolemia is not simple in clinical practice. Patients are often poorly tolerant of some drugs, such as statins. So having more weapons available, effective and safe weapons is very important for us.”
Bempedoic acid “is a smart drug – adds the expert – because it has a selective action at the level of the liver, reducing the synthesis of cholesterol, without generating the characteristic side effects of statins, and therefore a particularly interesting weapon that can help us control blood cholesterol levels”. Today against hypercholesterolemia “we have 4 categories of drugs available: statins, cholesterol absorption inhibitors, monoclonal antibodies inhibitors of a particular protein (Pcsk9) and finally bempedoic acid which is the first of a class of drugs. By integrating these four elements – he concludes – we can personalize the therapy, we can now effectively and safely treat all patients who have altered blood cholesterol levels”.