For decades high-risk patients have relied on statins but trials show those injecting alirocumab while still taking their tablets had fewer major adverse cardiovascular events than those on statins alone.
The new NHS therapy is given to those whose cholesterol remains dangerously high despite taking the maximum dose of statins, or who cannot tolerate the drugs.
The treatment is a new class of drugs known as PCSK9 inhibitor.
It inactivates a specific protein in the liver, reducing the amount of harmful LDL, or bad cholesterol, in the blood.
It is aimed at patients with high bad cholesterol levels at risk of a fatal heart attack or stroke.
Alirocumab reduced this risk by 24 per cent.
The benefit was even greater in those with stubbornly high bad cholesterol.
That group saw a 29 per cent reduction in death from any cause after taking the drug for two years.
The British Heart Foundation’s Professor Sir Nilesh Samani said: “Coronary heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in the UK, and remains the leading cause of death worldwide. Having high levels of cholesterol in the blood puts people at serious risk of coronary heart disease.
“This new class of drugs are very promising for people with high cholesterol for whom statins and lifestyle changes alone are not enough to bring their cholesterol to low levels.
“This study confirms that PCSK9 inhibitors can reduce the risk of a further heart attack or stroke for people with coronary heart disease. It has shown that these drugs can reduce the risk of death in such patients, when used alongside statins.”
The international trial, involving 18,924 patients, is the first to show the new class of drugs has the ability to extend lives and could work better than statins, which are cheap and commonly prescribed, but remain mired in controversy.
Alirocumab, made by Sanofi, costs £10,000 per patient.
The findings, presented to the American College of Cardiology conference in Orlando, Florida, were based on a trial in 57 countries, where patients were randomly assigned to receive alirocumab or a placebo.
Those enrolled were over 40 and many had been treated with the maximum amount of statin therapy possible but were still unable to get their cholesterol down.
Imperial College London Professor Kausik Ray said: “These new results show, for the first time, that use of alirocumab to lower cholesterol can reduce heart attacks and stroke in high-risk patients.”