Press release
AMGEN ANNOUNCES CARDIOVASCULAR STUDY TO EVALUATE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN LIPOPROTEIN(a) AND CARDIOVASCULAR RISK IN AFRICAN AMERICANS
Unique Community-Based Partnership With the Association of Black Cardiologists and Morehouse School of Medicine to Identify Study Sites and Participants
About this update from Amgen Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"Unique Community-Based Partnership With the Association of Black Cardiologists and Morehouse School of Medicine to Identify Study Sites and Participants\nObservational Study to Better Understand Associations Between Lp(a) Levels and Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease (ASCVD) in an Underrepresented Patient Population\nTHOUSAND OAKS, Calif., Feb. 22, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) today announced the African American Heart Study, in collaboration with the Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC) and the Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM), which will measure the association between Lipoprotein(a), or Lp(a), and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) in 5,000 African American individuals across the United States. ASCVD is defined as the buildup of cholesterol plaque in arteries and includes events such as heart attack and stroke.\n\"The African American Heart Study is a unique collaborative study including community outreach in partnership with trusted organizations to help improve our understanding of the disproportionate higher incidence of Lp(a) and cardiovascular disease progression in African Americans and hopefully provide insights of ways to address barriers in clinical trial access,\" said Ponda Motsepe-Ditshego, M.D., vice president, global medical and head of Amgen's Representation in Clinical Research team. \"At Amgen, our mission is to serve patients, and important to that mission is expanding clinical trial access and diverse representation in the community setting to provide a full picture of how a disease impacts certain groups.\"\nCardiovascular disease is the number one killer of all Americans, and the cardiovascular risk for African Americans is even higher. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, African Americans are 30% more likely to die from heart disease than non-Hispanic whites.1-2\nLp(a) is a presumed independent risk factor for heart disease; levels are genetically determined and are known to differ by race and ethnicity.3-6 African American individuals show a higher average Lp(a) concentration than white populations, but Lp(a) research to date has primarily been conducted in individuals of European descent.7 This leaves the association between Lp(a) levels and incident ASCVD in persons of African American descent uncertain and important to investigate further t...