Heart-Attack Stopping Gene Lures Amgen, Sanofi in Drug Race

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.

Normally, the PCSK9 gene creates a protein that disrupts the ability of liver cells to remove bad cholesterol from blood, enabling it to accumulate. A mutated form of the DNA found in 3 percent of people lowers levels of the protein, allowing more of the artery-clogging hormones to be swept away.