{"id":807070,"date":"2026-07-17T23:26:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T23:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/807070\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T23:26:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T23:26:18","slug":"fda-approves-cholesterol-pill-from-merck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/807070\/","title":{"rendered":"FDA approves cholesterol pill from Merck"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>US drug regulators signed off on a new pill designed to lower cholesterol levels far beyond what traditional statins can achieve. <\/p>\n<p>Merck\u2019s Lipfendra achieved similar results to injectable treatments, potentially heralding a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/health\/pharma\/mercks-first-of-its-kind-cholesterol-pill-approved-ushering-in-new-wave-of-treatment-3e30d0e7?mod=hp_lead_pos3\" class=\"_linkEmbed_1pt7l_31\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">new era of easier prevention<\/a> for people wanting to bring down artery-clogging cholesterol. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/health\/2026\/07\/16\/fda-approves-powerful-new-cholesterol-drug\/\" class=\"_linkEmbed_1pt7l_31\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">This is a game changer<\/a>,\u201d one cardiologist said, adding that many patients were hesitant to go on the injection treatment. <\/p>\n<p>Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the US, so a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/07\/16\/science\/the-fda-approves-a-new-pill-to-slash-cholesterol-levels.html\" class=\"_linkEmbed_1pt7l_31\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">more powerful and accessible option<\/a> could help more people manage the risk. Merck could soon have competition in the field: AstraZeneca is also working on a cholesterol pill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US drug regulators signed off on a new pill designed to lower cholesterol levels far beyond what traditional&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[64,63,137,490],"class_list":["post-807070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-medication"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}