The purpose was the same as the vaccine, create an insurance-and-government-spending-to-drug-company money pipeline for "cholesterol lowering" drugs which don't meaningfully affect health outcomes one way or another.

The doctors show an arbitrary number on the blood test, say "this is high, take these drugs do make it lower". The drugs might or might not work to lower the number but the person is taking them until the day he dies. Then a few years later a new "study" comes out that says the number should be slightly lower and coincidentally a new set of patented formulations are available and the old ones which are about to go generic are no longer "effective".