Two women; one very rare genetic mutation.
Several years ago, scientists were thrilled to discover two patients, a Dallas mother and a young Zimbabwean woman, with the identical double dose of an extremely rare genetic mutation. Both women were found to have strikingly low cholesterol. That research set off a chase among three top pharmaceutical companies, Amgen, Pfizer and Sanofi, to develop new drugs that could imitate the effects of the mutation, called PCSK9, in driving down cholesterol levels.
