A new type of cholesterol-lowering drug that works differently than statins has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Esperion Therapeutics Inc.'s Nexletol will provide an alternative for people who can't tolerate or don't fully respond to statins such as Lipitor and Crestor, the Associated Press reported. Nexletol is a daily pill approved for people with a genetic predisposition for high cholesterol and for heart disease patients who need to further reduce their bad cholesterol. The drug is to be taken at the highest dose patients can tolerate and used in conjunction with a healthy diet, according to the FDA. "This is a nice alternative" to statins, but statins will still be the first choice, Dr. Christie Ballantyne, Baylor College of Medicine's cardiology chief, told the AP. He consults for Esperion and helped test Nexletol. Source
