The Big Gamble of CETP Inhibitors

Merck has invested a substantial amount of money on the CETP inhibitor anacetrapib. Chemist and veteran pharma blogger Derek Lowe suspects that the company might as well have plunked the money down in a casino. In a provocative new post, Lowe wonders if big pharma, in its desperation, has abandoned rational research in favor of, essentially,…

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Dalcetrapib: Another HDL-Raising CETP Inhibitor Bites The Dust

Another HDL-raising CETP inhibitor has failed to demonstrate cardiovascular benefit in a large clinical trial. With the presentation of the dal-OUTCOMES trial at the American Heart Association in Los Angeles andsimultaneous publication in the New England Journal of Medicine, dalcetrapib joins torceptrapib on the list of once-promising CETP inhibitors. In dal-OUTCOMES, 15,871 patients with a recent…

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