The U.S. FDA approved Merck's cholesterol-lowering pill, it said on Thursday, the first in a class of drugs dominated by injections, which could potentially broaden the use of cholesterol medication among people at risk of heart disease.
The pill, branded as Lipfendra, is intended to treat patients with hypercholesterolemia, including those with hereditary forms of the disease, which causes elevated levels of LDL, the so-called "bad" cholesterol in the blood that often leads to plaque buildup in the arteries. About one in four adults in the U.S. have high LDL cholesterol, according to the American Heart Association. With the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval, Lipfendra, also called enlicitide, would become the first oral treatment from the class of drugs that works by blocking a protein called PCSK9, high levels of which contribute to elevated cholesterol and cardiovascular disease.
