Optimal Medical Therapy is Much More Powerful Than Praluent (alirocumab) in Preventing Heart Attack
Adding alirocumab after a heart attack lowers LDL cholesterol from 92 to 40 and reduced the risk of a heart attack over 3 years from 7.6 to 6.6 percent. (722 vs 626 heart attacks). Compare that with optimal medical therapy (OMT) where the difference was 9 heart attacks in the OMT group vs. 35 in the usual care group. That is a four-fold reduction. The medications in the OMT protocol cost about $30 a month. Praluent is $463 per month at Publix with a GoodRx couple. The key is not lowering risk factors or the impact of an individual medication. The real real question is “what combination of medications and life-style measures have the greatest impact on reducing cardiovascular events, prolonging healthy life and reducing costs?” What do you think about that?