Breaking Barriers in Cholesterol Health with ANGPTL3

Transcript:

Narrator: 0:00

Welcome to the MedEvidence Monday Minute radio show hosted by Kevin Geddings of WSOS St. Augustine Radio and powered by ENCORE Research Group. Each Monday morning, Dr. Michael KCorrin calls in to bring you the latest medical updates with insightful discussions. Medevidence is where we help you navigate the real truth behind medical research, with both a clinical and research perspective. So sit back, relax and get ready to learn about the truth behind the data in medicine and healthcare. This is MedEvidence.

Kevin Geddings: 0:30

Well, Dr. Michael Koren is with us and we spent time learning from him about leading-edge clinical trials, and indeed we're going to look at a particular study today, right, doctor?

Dr. Michael Koren: 0:40

Yeah, I was going to talk to you about something called ANGPTL3.

Dr. Michael Koren: 0:45

It's really jargony but it's kind of interesting.

Dr. Michael Koren: 0:48

So there's a drug on the market called Evinacumab and Evinacumab is a drug that treats a very rare condition called homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia and it's a one in a million diagnosis. And this one in a million diagnosis is something that actually I've never seen in my career. But the actual mechanism by which that drug works is really interesting, and now we're working with a company to use that in a more broad way. So we're now looking at using that type of mechanism to treat people that just have sort of routine cholesterol issues and as we speak, we're recruiting for a trial that involves spending the night with us and seeing whether or not this new drug helps people that have high cholesterol levels that are pretty healthy. You know, people who are doing well, pretty healthy, maybe just taking a statin and no other medication, or even not taking a statin and wondering whether or not they should be on it, and they get the chance to be part of what we're doing in terms of cutting edge research and also learning a lot about this new way of treating cholesterol conditions.

Kevin Geddings: 1:54

Yeah, that's really cool. So, people that could participate would be really anybody dealing with high cholesterol.

Dr. Michael Koren: 2:00

Yeah, any basically healthy person that has been told about a high cholesterol, that isn't on lots of other medications, that is either concerned about it, wants to learn a lot more. I think the person that wants to learn a lot more is actually the perfect candidate because, again, because of the brevity of our format, I can't go into all the details, but the actual mechanism, the science behind these products is really quite remarkable and, for example, this drug that uses this ANCHPTL3 inhibition is able to reduce triglyceride levels, raise HDL levels and lower LDL levels, and it may do so in a way that is particularly one effective and also in a way that can reduce complications down the road, such as heart attack and stroke.

Kevin Geddings: 2:50

So if you're somebody dealing with high cholesterol and you decide to participate in a study like this, will you potentially be getting a placebo, if you will?

Dr. Michael Koren: 2:58

Yeah, in most of the studies that we do, we don't guarantee what people are going to be receiving. So every study is a little bit different and we have to get into the details of each study. Some of them have a period of time when it's placebo-controlled and then they get open-label treatment. Some of them are purely scientific and it's entirely placebo-controlled. The one in particular that I mentioned is an interesting program because it actually involves spending some time in the unit with us. So even though there won't be a whole lot going on, people get paid for this. This is an opportunity for people to get paid a decent amount of money for spending time with us and participating in the scientific process and learning about it. So these studies will almost certainly be all placebo-controlled, and these studies will also be opportunities to really dig into your condition. So that's the value driver there. We like to make sure people understand that we're not selling the idea that this drug is going to change their life, but we will sell the idea that this process can be life-changing.

Kevin Geddings: 4:01

Wow. It's important to note, too, right Dr. Koren, that this isn't some elaborate effort that's going to take hours or days and days of your time to participate in a study like this, correct?

Dr. Michael Koren: 4:10

Well, it depends on the study. So, actually, the phase one studies actually are hours and days, just to be clear. So when we ask people to do that, we pay them a substantial amount so that their time is adequately compensated. So some people enjoy that, of course, and it's a way to make a little bit extra money. But in many of the studies it's not like that's your point. So other studies we have, you have a 30-minute visit, you go on your way. So it's really highly dependent on actually what we're looking at and the scientific question and how we're solving it.

Kevin Geddings: 4:49

Before I let you go too. We want to make sure that folks know about MedEvidence a great website, good source for health care information that you can trust, right, Dr. Koren?

Dr. Michael Koren: 4:55

Yeah, so our logo is the truth behind the data and, Kevin, you and I have had a number of conversations about what is truth, and truth is complicated. Everybody thinks that they have their version of the truth, but in medicine we find that you really have to explore issues before you know the truth and then, most importantly, how you take the truth and make decisions that help you and your family. So we try to do that on MedEvidence through a number of different mechanisms. One is to have conversations between very knowledgeable physicians who tell people what we know, tell people what we don't know and tell people about how we figure out things that we don't know. And once you have that conversation, you get a really good sense for what is right for you, what's right for your family, and sometimes you get surprising information. So, for example, we had a recent conversation with Dr. Bharat Misra to present an information about how to survive your 60s. He had a number of insights that are really pretty cool.

Dr. Michael Koren: 5:55

So maybe people check that out and learn more about how to survive your 60s. Really pretty cool. But hopefully we'll get more and more people taking a look at the website. But today the feedback we're getting is just amazing. People are loving it and they're finding it to be a great resource.

Kevin Geddings: 6:11

It is. It's a great resource and content in a variety of different forms. Easy to access, but you can trust it, which is not the case with healthcare information on Facebook or TikTok or what have you. So take a look at it Medevidence. com, and if you find yourself intrigued or you know someone in your family or circle of friends who may be interested in participating in a clinical trial here locally, have them check out the website ENCOREdocs.com. Dr. Koren, we hope you have safe travels and we will talk with you again soon, okay sounds great, Kevin, be well, bye, bye.