This is the first data to demonstrate that a bile acid sequestrant (BAS), when added to therapy with a statin such as Merck & Co’s Zocor or Pfizer’s Lipitor, reduces hs-CRP (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein) levels, which is a marker for inflammation and also a strong predictor of coronary heart disease events.
In the study, the addition of WelChol to statin therapy led to a median hs-CRP percent drop of 6.2%, whilst the addition of placebo to statin therapy led to a median hs-CRP percent increase of 17.2%. The difference between treatment groups equates to a median hs-CRP percent change of -23%.
“Bile acid sequestrants were one of the first approved cholesterol lowering drugs, having been studied in the 1970s, before hs-CRP was routinely measured,” said lead study investigator Dr Harold Bays, Louisville Metabolic and Atherosclerosis Research Center. “This analysis finally brings the past to the present, in that it is the first to show that a non-systemic agent, specifically WelChol, when added to a statin, statistically reduces hs-CRP, an important marker of arterial inflammation.”
WelChol is different from most other cholesterol-lowering drugs on the market because it is non-systemic, meaning that the body does not absorb it and it is eliminated without traveling to the liver or kidneys. Systemic medications, which include the statin and fibrate classes, are those that are absorbed from the intestine into the bloodstream and travel throughout the body.