Booklets

PCSK9 as a therapeutic target: Insights from clinical trials

By Professor Jean-Charles Fruchart and Professor Michel P. Hermans

This booklet/slidedeck, the second in the series, focuses on evidence from clinical trials with PCSK9-targeted therapeutics.
Elevated LDL cholesterol is established as causal for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Statin treatment, although effective in lowering LDL cholesterol, still leaves an unacceptably high residual cardiovascular risk, underlining the need for additional therapies.
PCSK9-targeted treatments, which include monoclonal antibody therapies and siRNA therapeutics, are highly efficacious in lowering LDL cholesterol on top of statin therapy. This booklet and accompanying slidedeck overview the clinical trials with these novel therapies in different high-risk patient groups. These include the landmark outcomes studies – FOURIER and ODYSSEY OUTCOMES – which definitively demonstrated reduction in residual cardiovascular risk among patients with stable cardiovascular disease or acute coronary syndrome.
Finally, the booklet/slide deck discuss potential with gene-editing technology, which may offer the possibility a ‘one-time’ approach to LDL cholesterol management in the future.