**True Breakthroughs--Fish oil was once discounted, now REDUCE-IT brings Vascepa to the limelight: September 24, 2018

Heart disease risk is something we MUST try to control, yet some of the newer medicines (such as PCSK9 inhibitors) can cost $14,000 dollars per year of treatment. The search for cost-effective and risk-reducing treatments sometimes spills over to health food stores and herbal or nutritional products that only a handful of people have heard of. Recent studies of combination fish oil products (those with DHA and EPA) have found results to be variable and in some cases, lacking.

Ongoing searches in 2016 of www.clinicaltrials.gov lead me to the REDUCE-IT study. Reduce-IT stands for A Study of AMR101 to Evaluate Its Ability to Reduce Cardiovascular Events in High-Risk Patients With Hypertriglyceridemia and on Statin. The main goal (Primary Objective) was to study the effect of AMR101 (VASCEPA) on preventing a first major heart and blood vessel event. This may be possible at a cost of roughly $2,000 per year versus other medicines.

REDUCE-IT met the primary end point at a 25 % relative risk reduction using 4 grams of pure EPA as a specific dose and chemical identity. More to follow on www.EssentialGuideToPrescriptionDrugs later today and from AHA Scientific Sessions Nov 10th. Conference call at 9 AM today from the company. I will contact our naturopathic consultant this afternoon (9/24) to see if she has an opinion! More to follow as usual.

References

1. Rybacki, JJ, Tindall, SC, The Essential Guide to Prescription Drugs, Update on fish oil, focus on Vascepa. October 17, 2018. In press for
2. American Heart Association, 2018. Disease and Stroke statistics-2018 Update
3. Ganda, OP, Bhatt, DL, Mason, RP, et al. Unmet need for adjunctive dyslipidemia therapy hypertriglyceridemia management. J Amwer Coll Cardiol. 2018:72(3):330-343.
4. Toth, PP, Granowitz, C, Hull, M, et al. High triglycerides are adssociated with increased cardiovascular events, medical costs, and resource use: A real-world