It is already known that heart problems and diseases are caused by excess bad fat.
High levels of triglycerides, a type of fat found in the blood, can increase the risk of serious heart problems and stroke.
These fats often increase in people with diabetes or those who are overweight, and while some treatments exist, they don’t always work well. A new study has found that a drug called olezarsen may provide a much better solution.
The study was shared at the 2025 ESC Congress and also published in the American heart newsled by Dr. Brian Bergmark of Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School in Boston.
The drug was tested in a large, high-quality clinical trial called ESSENCE-TIMI 73b, which enrolled more than 1,300 adults in North America and Europe with moderate hypertriglyceridemia.
Hypertriglyceridemia is when triglyceride levels are higher than normal, but not extremely high.
Most of these people were also at high risk for heart disease, either because they already had it or because they had diabetes and were over 55 years old.
Study participants were already receiving standard treatments to control their cholesterol levels and were randomly divided into three groups: one group received 50 mg of olezarsen, the other received 80 mg and the third group received a placebo (a treatment without active drug). For a year, everyone received an injection once every four weeks.
After six months, the results were quite impressive, as triglyceride levels dropped sharply in people taking olezarsen.
The group given 50 mg of the drug had a 58.4% greater drop in triglyceride levels than the placebo group, and the 80 mg group had a 60.6% greater drop. These changes were considered very significant.
More than 85% of people taking olezarsen saw their triglyceride levels drop below 150 mg/dL, which is considered normal.
Olezarsen also helped reduce other harmful blood fats, including residual cholesterol, non-HDL cholesterol, and apolipoprotein B. Interestingly, it did not affect LDL cholesterol, the main target of most cholesterol-lowering medications.
Overall, this study shows that olezarsen may offer strong potential to lower triglyceride levels in people at risk for heart disease.
Most people in the study reached safe levels of triglycerides, something that is difficult to achieve with current treatments.
