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.

                                                                                                                        A shot for high cholesterol: Patients struggling with high cholesterol may soon get just the shot in the arm they need. In the first human test of a new injectable drug designed to target LDL, or "bad" cholesterol, scientists at Amgen laboratories in California found it lowered cholesterol in healthy individuals by almost two-thirds.

Researchers injected a laboratory-made human protein (AMG 145) or a placebo into 56 healthy subjects ages 18 to 45.

"Those receiving the higher doses saw a 64 per cent reduction in their cholesterol compared to those who received a placebo injection," said Clapton Dias, medical sciences director of pharmacology for Amgen, who presented the findings. The medication had no effect on triglycerides or HDL, also called "good" cholesterol.

AMG 145 works by disabling the agent that inhibits the liver’s ability to remove bad cholesterol from the blood.

Although statin medications help many patients lower their cholesterol, about 25 per cent can’t achieve their cholesterol goals on statins, and many can’t tolerate them, Dias said. "So we’re looking for another agent."

Five clinical trials are underway to further test the efficacy of AMG 145.