Isis Pharmaceuticalsdeveloped an experimental drug that produced a sharp reduction in blood fat or triglyceride, according to a report released by Reuters on Sunday.
The small mid-stage trial showed that this type of blood fat is the one responsible for increasing the risk of heart disease.
Codenamed ISIS-APOCIIIRx, the drug is attracting increased attention from investors who believe it could be a huge money spinner for the United States biotech company.
It is recommended for patients with very high to severely high triglyceride levels.
After the researchers tested the drug as a monotherapy in the Phase II study, it resulted in a reduction of up to 75 percent in triglycerides and up to 79 percent in apolipoprotein C-III, another substance that prevents triglycerides being cleared from the blood.
"The patients used in the study had mean increases of up to 57% in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) or "good cholesterol," said Dr. Daniel Gaude at the European Society of Cardiology's annual meeting.
The said findings were based on an interim analysis of 28 patients who completed 13 weeks of treatment with ISI-APOCIIIRx or placebo.
The drug was developed using the ISIS's antisense technology, which works by inhibiting a cell's production of disease-causing protein.
