Statin News and Research

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Statins are drugs used to lower cholesterol. Your body needs some cholesterol to work properly. But if you have too much in your blood, it can stick to the walls of your arteries, narrowing or even blocking them.

Type 2 diabetes less common in patients with familial hypercholesterolemia

The prevalence of type 2 diabetes among 25,000 patients with familial hypercholesterolemia (a genetic disorder characterized by high low-density lipoprotein [LDL] cholesterol levels) was significantly lower than among unaffected relatives, with the prevalence varying by the type of gene mutation, according to a study in the March 10 issue of JAMA.

11 Mar 2015

Screening for and treating depression could help reduce risk of heart disease

A new study by researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute has found that screening for and treating depression could help to reduce the risk of heart disease in patients with moderate to severe depression.

6 Mar 2015

New study shows who benefits most from statin therapy

Research has demonstrated that the risk for developing coronary heart disease depends on a host of risk factors that are related both to lifestyle and genetics. In a new study from Brigham and Women's Hospital, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and Massachusetts General Hospital, researchers tested whether a composite of genetic variants could identify the risk of cardiovascular death and heart attacks as well as identify individuals who derived greater clinical benefit from statin therapy.

4 Mar 2015

Ninety percent of patients at risk of CHD fail to receive statins

The study, published in Current Medical Research and Opinion, provides the first ever real-world view of the treatment landscape for patients at risk of CHD[1], with a sample of two million patients. But the results paint a bleak picture of prescribing patterns with the majority not being given the potentially life saving drug.

27 Feb 2015

Single-step fermentative method may facilitate industrial-scale statin drug production

University of Manchester researchers, together with industrial partner DSM, have developed a single-step fermentative method for the production of leading cholesterol-lowering drug, pravastatin, which will facilitate industrial-scale statin drug production.

27 Feb 2015

Beneficial effects of statin treatment exaggerated, say researchers

Hailed as miracle drugs when they hit the market two decades ago, statins, the cholesterol-lowering drugs prescribed to prevent heart attacks, are not as effective nor as safe as we have been led to believe, say Dr. David M. Diamond, a professor of psychology, molecular pharmacology and physiology at the University of South Florida, and Dr. Uffe Ravnskov, an independent health researcher and an expert in cholesterol and cardiovascular disease.

23 Feb 2015

New study finds that statins may not reduce risk for Parkinson's disease

The use of statins may not be associated with lowering risk for Parkinson's disease, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State College of Medicine and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The findings cast doubts on reports suggesting that the cholesterol-lowering medications may protect against this neurodegenerative brain disorder.

20 Feb 2015

Natalizumab drug helps scientists confirm how 'viral reservoirs' form in HIV patients

A drug used to treat patients with Crohn's disease and multiple sclerosis has helped scientists confirm how "viral reservoirs" form in patients living with HIV and also proven effective in animal trials at blocking the pathways to those reservoirs in the brain and gut, a team of researchers reported recently in the journal PLOS Pathogens.

19 Feb 2015

Study: Most risk calculators used by clinicians overestimate risk of heart attack

Most "risk calculators" used by clinicians to gauge a patient's chances of suffering a heart attack and guide treatment decisions appear to significantly overestimate the likelihood of a heart attack, according to results of a study by investigators at Johns Hopkins and other institutions.

17 Feb 2015

Widely used clinical calculators overrate heart attack risk

16 Feb 2015

Synthetic Biologics reports positive results from SYN-004 Phase 1b trial to prevent C. difficile infection

Synthetic Biologics, Inc., a developer of pathogen-specific therapies for serious infections and diseases, with a focus on protecting the microbiome, today announced positive topline safety and tolerability results from a Phase 1b clinical trial of SYN-004, the Company's investigational oral beta-lactamase enzyme designed to protect the microbiome and prevent Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) infection, antibiotic-associated diarrhea and secondary antibiotic-resistant infections in patients receiving intravenous (IV) beta-lactam antibiotic therapy.

10 Feb 2015

Two new ODYSSEY trials meet primary efficacy endpoints

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Sanofi today announced that two new ODYSSEY trials, which are the first Phase 3 trials to assess alirocumab administered every four weeks, met their primary efficacy endpoints.

9 Jan 2015

Synthetic Biologics doses first patient in SYN-004 Phase 1b trial to prevent C. difficile infection

Synthetic Biologics, Inc., a developer of pathogen-specific therapies for serious infections and diseases, with a focus on protecting the microbiome, today announced that enrollment has initiated and the first patient was dosed in a Phase 1b clinical trial of SYN-004, an investigational oral beta-lactamase enzyme for the prevention of Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) infection, antibiotic-associated diarrhea and secondary antibiotic-resistant infections in patients receiving intravenous (IV) beta-lactam antibiotic therapy.

31 Dec 2014

Study explores association between statin use and cataracts

Few classes of drugs have had such a transformative effect on the prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) as have statins, prescribed to reduce total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol.

4 Dec 2014

Study: Preoperative interventions improve outcomes of patients undergoing CABG surgery

A quality improvement initiative improved the outcomes of patients undergoing cardiac surgery at select medical centers in northern New England, according to a study in the December issue of Critical Care Nurse (CCN).

1 Dec 2014

Pivotal Therapeutics announces accomplishments, financial results for Q3 2014

Pivotal Therapeutics Inc., ("Pivotal" or the "Company"), a specialty pharmaceutical company with a focus on Omega-3 therapies for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and overall health, announced its accomplishments and financial results for the three months ended September 30, 2014.

29 Nov 2014

Statin use linked to improved RCC surgery outcomes

Statin use at the time of surgery is associated with improved overall survival and disease-specific survival in patients with renal cell carcinoma of any stage, US researchers report.

18 Nov 2014

Adding ezetimibe to statin therapy reduces cardiovascular events

More than a decade ago, researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital demonstrated that a high dose statin, which lowered cholesterol further than a regular dose statin, provided better clinical outcomes. But questions remained about whether further reducing cholesterol would be even more effective in reducing cardiovascular-related events.

18 Nov 2014

A single gene mutation can halve the risk of heart disease

Recent research has shown that inactivation of a single gene reduces the risk of heart attack by 50%.

14 Nov 2014

Rare gene mutation linked to lower cholesterol levels, reduced risk of heart attack

Rare mutations that shut down a single gene are linked to lower cholesterol levels and a 50 percent reduction in the risk of heart attack, according to new research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the Broad Institute at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, and other institutions.

14 Nov 2014