Background: Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) is a risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). There are limited real-world data on LDL-C lowering with evolocumab in United States clinical practice.
Hypothesis: We assessed LDL-C lowering during 1 year of evolocumab therapy.
Methods: This retrospective cohort study used linked laboratory (Prognos) and medical claims (IQVIA Dx/LRx and PharMetrics Plus® ) data. Patients with a first fill for evolocumab between 7/1/2015 and 10/31/2019 (index event) and LDL-C ≥ 70 mg/dL were included (overall cohort; N = 5897). Additionally, a patient subgroup with a recent myocardial infarction (MI) within 12 months (median 130 days) before the first evolocumab fill was identified (N = 152). Reduction from baseline LDL-C was calculated based on the lowest LDL-C value recorded during a 12-month follow-up period.
Results: The mean (SD) age was 65 (10) years; 61.9% of patients had ASCVD diagnoses and 70.7% of patients were in receipt of lipid-lowering therapy. Following evolocumab treatment, changes in LDL-C from baseline were -60% in the overall cohort (median [interquartile range (IQR)] 146 [115-180] mg/dL to 58 [36-84] mg/dL) and -65% in the recent MI subgroup (median [IQR] 137 [109-165] mg/dL to 48 [30-78] mg/dL). In the overall cohort and recent MI subgroup, 62.1% and 69.7% of patients achieved LDL-C < 70 mg/dL, respectively.
Conclusions: In this real-world analysis, evolocumab was associated with significant reductions in LDL-C comparable to that seen in the FOURIER clinical trial, which were durable over 1 year of treatment.
Keywords: LDL-C; atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease; real-world evidence.
© 2021 The Authors. Clinical Cardiology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.