Q&A: Statin, Nonstatin Combination Therapy to Treat Patients’ Cardiovascular Risk | ASHP Midyear

With growing prominence of cardiovascular disease in the US, several medications and therapeutic agents have been approved by the FDA to help patients relieve their symptoms. And with a slew of medications available, it’s important for pharmacists to educate their patient population on the therapies most useful for each specific individual.

According to John Bucheit, PharmD, Ambulatory Care Pharmacist and Assistant Professor at the Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Pharmacy, a combination of statins and nonstatins can achieve better patient outcomes.

“I really try to avoid looking at an ‘either or’ approach to statins versus nonstatins, and really think about how can we best manage this patient's cholesterol levels,” he said.

Learn from a medication and ambulatory care expert on how patients can better manage their cholesterol levels. | image credit: Emanuel / stock.adobe.com

Check out his exclusive interview with Drug Topics at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists 2024 Midyear Clinical Meeting and Exhibition, held December 8 to 12 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Learn from a medication and ambulatory care expert on how patients can better manage their cholesterol levels.

Drug Topics: Why might a nonstatin therapy be a better choice for a patient to manage cardiovascular risk?

John Bucheit: When I think about lipid-lowering medications, I think about [it] as all-hands-on-deck. Cardiovascular disease is the number 1 cause of death in the United States. I really try to avoid looking at an ‘either or’ approach to statins versus nonstatins, and really think about how can we best manage this patient's cholesterol levels. So, statins have robust safety and efficacy data, and they come in many different strengths. They're also relatively inexpensive now that they've been out for a really long time. [For] our nonstatins, we do have some low-cost nonstatin agents, as well as some more expensive agents. So, using that combination is really important to optimize that patient's cardiovascular health.

Drug Topics: Why is recent research promising for nonstatin therapies?

John Bucheit: I think the big take-home point from our presentation is that it's an exciting time to be in lipid management. It's really good for patients because there are more and more options, as well as more and more data coming out showing that nonstatin agents are beneficial for patients with cardiovascular disease or at higher risk for cardiovascular disease. Being able to use combinations of products to optimize our patient's health is something that the data is continuing to support and more advances with that as we look forward to the next set of clinical practice guidelines.

Follow along with our coverage of the 2024 ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting and Exhibition here.