PCSK9 is a protein that destroys the liver receptors responsible for clearing LDL cholesterol from the blood. Block PCSK9 and those receptors survive longer, pulling far more cholesterol out of circulation — LDL reductions of 50-60% on top of a statin. They are injections rather than tablets, and are reserved for people whose cholesterol stays high despite maximum statin therapy, or who cannot tolerate statins. Inclisiran achieves the same end differently, using RNA interference to stop PCSK9 being made in the first place, and is dosed only twice a year.
The facts on this page are pulled directly from official U.S. FDA datasets — they are not written from memory. Each field below names the dataset it came from, so you can check it yourself.
Plain-English summaries and drug-class explainers are written and reviewed by the Priya Life Science editorial team, led by Sreepriya Prasannan (MSc Digital Transformation of Life Sciences (Innopharma Education / Griffith College); MSc & BSc Botany). Data is retrieved automatically from the sources above and cross-checked with AI-assisted verification (Anthropic's Claude) — brand and generic names are matched against the exact FDA product record so that a combination product or a different formulation cannot be mistaken for the drug on this page. An editor reviews the result before publication. We describe this in full in our editorial standards and corrections policy. The FDA data on this page was last retrieved on 24 Aug 2026.