Many doctors are very hopeful that the recent development of cholesterol-lowering medications may make a big difference in lowering morbidity from heart disease and strokes. Now scientists from Cambridge University believe they have discovered the next big thing – a tomato based tablet that can almost entirely remove unwanted blood fats within eight weeks.
The pill was created by a team from the biotechnology off-shoot of the university and is called Ateronon. It is designed to mimic a Mediterranean diet, long believed to stem heart problems. The drug blocks bad cholesterol – LDL cholesterol – due to the active ingredient, Lycopene. In initial tests done on 150 people, it appeared that Ateronon reduced the oxidisation of fats in the blood nearly completely over two months.
The pill will be launched by Cambridge Theranostics LTD as a dietary supplement and neuroscientist Peter Kirkpatrick, who will be leading further trials at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, thinks that it could prove even more effective than current statin-based treatments prescribed on the NHS. However various experts from the British Heart Foundation and the cholesterol charity Heart UK have warned that though initial trial results are exciting, more needs to be known about the medication.