The world’s biggest drugmakers are racing to market the first medicine to tap into a gene mutation that drops heart-attack risk by as much as 88 percent. Normally, the PCSK9 gene creates a protein that disrupts the ability of liver cells to remove bad cholesterol from blood, enabling it to accumulate. A mutated form of the DNA found in 3 percent of people lowers levels of the protein, allowing more of the artery-clogging hormones to be swept away. Just five years after the effects were discovered, more than a half-dozen companies led by Amgen Inc. (AMGN), Sanofi and Pfizer Inc. (PFE) are developing a new family of treatments based on the science. Amgen and Sanofi partner Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (REGN) will present data from early human trials at the American Heart Association meeting next week.
