Drug Firm Claims Fish Oil Reduces Heart Attack Risk

A fish oil imitation may cut risks of major cardiovascular complications like heart attack and stroke by as much as 25 percent, initial results announced by its manufacturer, Amarin Corporation.

Vascepa is a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved prescription fish oil, and Amarin Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company from New Jersey has been leading a large global study on the drug since 2011.

Fish oil supplements are a profitable business. In the United States alone, 19 million people take the pills, spending around USD 1.2 billion annually on them.

According to Amarin Corporation that fish oil ester, Vascepa does so well enough to drastically reduce the risks of heart attack or stroke.

Vascepa is one of two FDA-approved, prescription omega-3 acid drugs, and both it and Lovaza are ethyl esters.

In other words, they are derived from fish oil but are not themselves pure fish oil.

For some individuals, fish oil can, in fact, raise LDL levels though it may reduce triglycerides, but Amarin Corporation boasts that its drug can reduce by triglycerides by a third, without touching LDL levels.

In a test of Vascepa’s power, Amarin Corporation began leading the REDUCE-IT study in 2011 that involved more than 8,100 high-risk heart patients from around the world.

Amarin Corporation’s announcement stated that all of the study participants were already taking statins, the most commonly prescribed drug to help control cholesterol levels, but only half of they were also given Vascepa.

Amarin Corporation stated that the study has at last concluded, and those that got both medications were 25 percent less likely to have a stroke, heart attack or other major cardiovascular problems, be hospitalized or die from these problems.

Just this year, the United States FDA on May 29 granted Amarin Corporation’s Vascepa a priority review for a supplemental indication that would state the prescription fish oil reduces cardiovascular risk in addition to helping patients manage elevated triglyceride levels.