Icosabutate, a Structurally Engineered Fatty Acid, Improves the Cardiovascular Risk Profile in Statin-Treated Patients with Residual Hypertriglyceridemia

Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of icosabutate, an oral, once-daily, first-in-class medication, in reducing non-high-density lipoprotein Cholesterol (non-HDL-C) in patients with persistent hypertriglyceridemia despite statin therapy.

Methods: The study was designed to randomly assign 140 patients with fasting triglyceride levels ≥200 but <500 mg/dl on a stable dose of statin therapy to receive either masked icosabutate 600 mg once daily or a control for 12 weeks. The primary end point was a percentage change in non-HDL-C from baseline to 12 weeks.

Results: With icosabutate, non-HDL-C levels were reduced (-9.2%) when compared with the control (-0.4%) for a between-group difference of -7.4% (p = 0.02). Compared with the control, icosabutate reduced triglycerides (-27.0%, p < 0.001), very- low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) Cholesterol (-31.5%, p < 0.001) and apolipoprotein C-III (-22.5%, p < 0.001). LDL-C levels did not change (0.5%, p = 0.87). HDL-C (10.2%, p < 0.001) was increased. After 113 subjects had been randomized, the study was terminated due to a partial clinical hold imposed by US regulators after observing QT prolongation at supratherapeutic doses of icosabutate in a dog study. In this study, adverse events were balanced between treatment arms, and there were no discontinuations due to adverse events.

Conclusions: Icosabutate was efficacious in lowering non-HDL-C and other biomarkers of cardiovascular risk and was generally well tolerated.