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Abstract
Homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia is characterized by premature cardiovascular disease caused by markedly elevated levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. This disorder is associated with genetic variants that result in virtually absent (null–null) or impaired (non-null) LDL-receptor activity. Loss-of-function variants in the gene encoding angiopoietin-like 3 (ANGPTL3) are associated with hypolipidemia and protection against atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Evinacumab, a monoclonal antibody against ANGPTL3, has shown potential benefit in patients with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia. In this double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial, we randomly assigned in a 2:1 ratio 65 patients with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia who were receiving stable lipid-lowering therapy to receive an intravenous infusion of evinacumab (at a dose of 15 mg per kilogram of body weight) every 4 weeks or placebo. The primary outcome was the percent change from baseline in the LDL cholesterol level at week 24. The mean baseline LDL cholesterol level in the two groups was 255.1 mg per deciliter, despite the receipt of maximum doses of background lipid-lowering therapy. At week 24, patients in the evinacumab group had a relative reduction from baseline in the LDL cholesterol level of 47.1%, as compared with an increase of 1.9% in the placebo group, for a between-group least-squares mean difference of –49.0 percentage points (95% confidence interval [CI], –65.0 to –33.1; P<0.001); the between-group least-squares mean absolute difference in the LDL cholesterol level was –132.1 mg per deciliter (95% CI, –175.3 to –88.9; P<0.001). The LDL cholesterol level was lower in the evinacumab group than in the placebo group in patients with null–null variants (–43.4% vs. +16.2%) and in those with non-null variants (–49.1% vs. –3.8%). Adverse events were similar in the two groups. In patients with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia receiving maximum doses of lipid-lowering therapy, the reduction from baseline in the LDL cholesterol level in the evinacumab group, as compared with the small increase in the placebo group, resulted in a between-group difference of 49.0 percentage points at 24 weeks. (Funded by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals; ELIPSE HoFH ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT03399786.)
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1 From the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (F.J.R.); the Cardiometabolics Unit, Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute, Marie-Josee and Henry R. Kravis Center for Cardiovascular Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York (R.S.R.), and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Tarrytown (S.A., P.B, K.-C.C., D.A.G., N.K., R.P., D.M.W. G.D.Y., Y.Z.) — both in New York; the Department of Vascular Medicine, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam (L.F.R., G.K.H., J.J.P.K.); the Department of Internal Medicine and Surgery, Federico II University, Naples, Italy (P.R.); and the Clinical Lipidology and Rare Lipid Disorders Unit, Department of Medicine, Université de Montréal Community Gene Medicine Center, Lipid Clinic Chicoutimi Hospital and ECOGENE-21 Clinical and Translational Research Center, Chicoutimi, QC, Canada (D.G.).