AN injection that lowers cholesterol to protect against heart attacks will be available within six years, doctors hope.
The once-a-year jab, now being tested in clinical trials, would end the need to take daily statin pills for millions of patients.
It works by boosting the body’s ability to remove cholesterol from the blood, cutting levels by as much as a third in high-risk adults.
The treatment could be on the market as soon as 2023 at a cost of between £625 and £1,200 a time, say researchers.
Dr Tim Chico, from Sheffield University, said the inventive new therapy “would be likely to lead to a reduction in heart attacks”.
Cholesterol contributes to the stiffening and narrowing of arteries, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke.
About 160,000 deaths in Britain every year are down to heart or circulatory disease.
More than seven million adults take 6p-a-day statin tablets to cut the risk.
The new jab has been successfully tested on lab mice, cutting cholesterol by more than half and reducing blood vessel damage by two-thirds.
The Austrian findings are published in the European Heart Journal.
The jab is expected to have a similar effect in humans, who will need two or three shots, then a booster once a year.
Researcher Dr Günther Staffler likened it to a vaccine as it was a jab with a long-term effect.
But side-effects include an increased risk of developing diabetes.