Drug could prevent heart attacks

A DRUG which lowers “bad” cholesterol and raises “good” cholesterol could help prevent millions of heart attacks every year, researchers revealed yesterday.

In a US study, the drug was found to double levels of good cholesterol, or HDL, in patients with low readings. At the same time, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Tufts University, found the drug, torcetrapib, also reduced LDL, the bad cholesterol. Good cholesterol reduces risk of heart disease while bad cholesterol raises it.

Although the study was small (involving 19 patients) its results were said to be striking.

Wider scale tests will now be carried out.

"One of the big questions that we do have with this drug is: Will using it to raise HDL levels from normal to high actually reduce risk in people who are at high risk?" said study author Daniel Rader, Penn's director of preventive cardiovascular medicine.

In the study, the 19 patients took a 120-milligram torcetrapib pill daily for four weeks. Ten also took the common cholesterol treatment a statin, Lipitor - every day.

HDL levels rose an average of 46% in those taking just torcetrapib, to 46 milligrams, and jumped 61%, to 47, in those getting both medicines.

Six patients took the torcetrapib pill twice a day in the study's third phase, and their HDL jumped 106%, to 70.

Currently, millions of people at risk of heart attack are treated with statin drugs. Scientists believe that statins could be used in conjunction with the new drug. Results of the study were published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Under the next round of tests, patients will be tracked for several years while they take the drug.

However, Dr Norman Lasser, director of preventive cardiology at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark, said: "I'm convinced that it works."

High cholesterol levels can lead to heart disease and heart attacks.