Mer­ck’s oral cho­les­terol-low­er­ing drug shows sim­i­lar ef­fi­ca­cy to in­jectable pre­de­ces­sors as it moves to PhI­II: #ACC23

NEW OR­LEANS — In back-to-back pre­sen­ta­tions on Mon­day with its Phase III da­ta on a drug for pul­monary ar­te­r­i­al hy­per­ten­sion, Mer­ck un­veiled new mid-stage da­ta on an oral cho­les­terol-low­er­ing drug for heart dis­ease.

The 381-per­son Phase II study test­ed four dos­es of Mer­ck’s oral PC­SK9 in­hibitor rang­ing from 6 mg to 30 mg in pa­tients with high cho­les­terol. At the low­est dose, pa­tients saw their cho­les­terol lev­els fall by 41% over the eight-week treat­ment pe­ri­od, while pa­tients at the high­est dose saw their cho­les­terol lev­els fall by 61%. The da­ta were pre­sent­ed at the Amer­i­can Col­lege of Car­di­ol­o­gy an­nu­al meet­ing and si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly pub­lished in the Jour­nal of the Amer­i­can Col­lege of Car­di­ol­o­gy.

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