{"id":766721,"date":"2026-07-16T17:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T17:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/766721\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T17:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T17:58:09","slug":"fda-approves-lipfendra-a-powerful-cholesterol-lowering-pill-from-merck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/766721\/","title":{"rendered":"FDA approves Lipfendra, a powerful cholesterol-lowering pill from Merck"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Food and Drug Administration<\/a> on Thursday approved a new cholesterol pill from Merck that works in a different way from statins.<\/p>\n

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The daily pill, called Lipfendra, is known as a PCSK9 inhibitor \u2014 a class of powerful cholesterol-lowering medication that had previously only been available as injections. <\/p>\n

The drug was approved for people with hypercholesterolemia, or high levels of LDL cholesterol, the so-called bad cholesterol. <\/p>\n

About 1 in 4 adults in the U.S. have high LDL cholesterol, according to the American Heart Association<\/a>. Too much LDL cholesterol can lead to plaque buildup in the arteries, increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke.<\/p>\n

In one late-stage clinical trial<\/a>, Merck found that Lipfendra lowered LDL cholesterol levels by up to 60% after 24 weeks. In a second trial<\/a>, people with a genetic condition called heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia \u2014 which causes sky-high cholesterol from birth \u2014 saw similar reductions. Nearly all of the people in the trials were already taking a statin, and many were also taking a different cholesterol-lowering drug, ezetimibe.<\/p>\n

In March, a group of major medical organizations, including the AHA and the American College of Cardiology, released new guidelines urging more aggressive treatment of cholesterol<\/a>. People without heart disease risk factors should aim to get their LDL cholesterol below 100 mg\/dL, people at high risk should aim for under 70 mg\/dL and for people with heart disease, under 55 mg\/dL. <\/p>\n

The drug works by blocking the PCSK9 protein, which is instrumental in the production of LDL cholesterol. Statins have a different target: an enzyme that the liver uses to make cholesterol.<\/p>\n

The first PCSK9 inhibitor was approved in 2015. The drug, Repatha from Amgen, is an injectable. Regeneron and Sanofi also make an injection PCSK9 inhibitor called Praulent. <\/p>\n

Lipfendra will cost $10.50 a day, or $315 for a 30-day supply, according to Merck. The drugmaker expects the out-of-pocket cost will be lower. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved a new cholesterol pill from Merck that works in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":766722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[97,243],"class_list":["post-766721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-health","tag-medication"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=766721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}