Saroglitazar: A New Drug to Treat Diabetic Hypertriglyceridemia

Abstract

Dyslipidemia alone has been considered as one of the major modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular
diseases (CVD) accounting for 50% of the 1st myocardial infarction (MI) cases
worldwide.1 A recent epidemiological survey on prevalence of lipid abnormalities of the Indian
population by Indian Council of Medical Research-India Diabetes Study (ICMR-INDIAB), has
shown that 79% of Indian subjects above 20 years of age have abnormalities in at least one of
the lipid parameters.2 In this survey, the most commonly found lipid abnormality was low-high
density lipoprotein cholesterol (low HDL-C) in 72% subjects followed by high triglycerides
(TG) in 29.5% subjects and then high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) in 11.8%
subjects.3 Prevalence of dyslipidemia is high in India, which calls for urgent lifestyle and pharmacological
intervention strategies to prevent and manage this important cardiovascular risk
factor.