When it comes to lowering cholesterol, sometimes diet and exercise aren’t enough. Any heart doctor will tell you that statins are their go-to medication for treating stubbornly high cholesterol levels, and for reducing the risk of having a heart attack or other heart event. But up to 30% of people can’t tolerate the side effects like muscle pain—so they either take less-than-optimal doses, or refuse to take the pills at all. For these patients, there's “huge unmet need” for a safe and effective treatment, says Dr. Steven Nissen, a cardiologist at Cleveland Clinic.

Nissen spearheaded a new study looking at a drug called bempedoic acid, which could be the alternative that this population has been missing. While it’s already approved for lowering LDL cholesterol, the research found it can also reduce the risk of heart events, a benefit that many doctors had been waiting to see before prescribing the medication.

Here’s what the study found:

• Bempedoic acid lowers LDL cholesterol by 21%.
• The drug reduces the risk of an aggregated measure of heart events, including heart attack and dying of heart disease, by 13%.
• It is not associated with the same muscle issues that statins can cause, but it can raise levels of uric acid, so doctors should monitor people with gout who take the drug.

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