Iowans who’ve had little luck with cholesterol-lowering drugs may be able to experiment with a new option — for free. The Iowa Heart Center is now doing a study of a new drug which shows promise, according to the center’s principal investigator, Dr. William Wickemeyer (wick’-ah-my-uhr). While patients won’t get paid in cash for taking part in the study, Dr. Wickemeyer says they’ll have their cholesterol lowered as payment. He is satisfied the drug will do what it’s supposed to do. The new drug being tested is called Pitavastatin (pit’-ah-vah-stat-in). There are already plenty of drugs on the market that lower cholesterol, but for some people, none of them work — at least without some foul side effects. Wickemeyer says there are certain characteristics he’s looking for in potential test subjects.They want people 18 to 75 who have no known disease but who have high cholesterol. Those taking part in the study will have to make four trips to Des Moines over the 12 weeks. For more information, call the Iowa Heart Center at (515) 235-5096.
