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HealthDay News — Use of anacetrapib is associated with lower incidence of major coronary events for patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease receiving intensive statins, according to a study published online August 29 in the New England Journal of Medicine. The research was published to coincide with the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2017, held from August 26 to 30 in Barcelona, Spain.
Louise Bowman, MD, from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, and colleagues conducted a randomized trial involving 30,449 adults with atherosclerotic vascular disease who were receiving intensive atorvastatin therapy and had a mean low-density lipoprotein cholesterol level of 61mg/dL, a mean non-high-density lipoprotein (non-HDL) cholesterol level of 92mg/dL, and a mean HDL cholesterol level of 40mg/dL. Participants were randomized to 100mg of anacetrapib once daily or matching placebo.
The researchers found that the primary outcome of the first major coronary event (a composite of coronary death, myocardial infarction, or coronary revascularization) occurred in 10.8 and 11.8% of patients in the anacetrapib and placebo groups, respectively (rate ratio, 0.91) during a median follow-up of 4.1 years. Across prespecified subgroups the relative difference in risk was similar. The mean level of HDL cholesterol was 43mg/dL higher in the anacetrapib versus the placebo group (relative difference, 104%) and mean level of non-HDL cholesterol was 17mg/dL lower (relative difference, −0.18%).
“The use of anacetrapib resulted in a lower incidence of major coronary events than the use of placebo,” the authors write.
Several authors disclosed financial ties to pharmaceutical companies, including Merck, which manufactures anacetrapib and partially funded the study.
