Latest Good News on Evacetrapib

November 18th, 2011 by Ryan Luce No Comments

written by Michael O’Leary

If you have type 2 diabetes, you probably also battle cardiovascular disease often with statin drugs to lower your cholesterol. The American College of Physicians recommends that all people with diabetes and any other risk factor for cardiovascular disease should be taking cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.

Another promising new drug is undergoing testing that appears to boost good HDL cholesterol while lowering bad LDL cholesterol, and so far, without causing adverse effects on blood pressure that have stymied similar drugs. The latest clinical trial results of evacetrapib were highlighted in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association.

Co-author Dr. Steven Nissen, of the Cleveland Clinic said these early results clear the way for larger studies. (Link to published site)

“We can now go forward and study this drug in a much larger study designed to find out whether the drug can actually reverse the buildup of plaque in arteries and can also protect patients against the complication of abnormal cholesterol levels,” Nissen said in an interview with JAMA and posted on YouTube. “For patients who have struggled with low levels of good cholesterol, or low levels of HDL, I think this is encouraging.”

In the early stage, phase II clinical trial evacetrapib reported on by MedPage Today, researchers tested the drug at three doses in 398 patients with elevated LDL levels and low HDL levels between April 2010 and January 2011. They took the new drug with or without statin drugs, or took a placebo with or without statins.

Those who took the evacetrapib raised their HDL cholesterol by an average ranging from 54 percent to 129 percent depending on dose, meaning the higher the dose the greater the increase. At the same time, they lowered their average LDL cholesterol ranging from 14 percent to 36 percent also depending on dose. There was no adverse effect on blood pressure or other side effects.

Those who took evacetrapib alone increased their HDL cholesterol by an average of 30.0 mg/dL to 66.0 mg/dL depending on dose. That compared to an average decrease in HDL of 0.7 mg/dL for those taking placebo alone. People who took both evacetrapib and a statin, saw a greater decrease in LDL cholesterol but no greater increase in HDL compared to those who took evacetrapib alone.

Made by Eli Lilly, evacetrapib works in a similar way as anacetrapib, which Corengi reported on last month. Evacetrapib blocks CETP, which is short for cholesterylester transfer protein. This protein normally transfers cholesterol from high-density lipid cholesterol to very low or low-density lipid cholesterol. Blocking its function results in higher HDL levels and reduces LDL levels. Torcetrapib, another drug in this class of CTEP blockers, failed in 2006 due to increased deaths in a large clinical trial. Anacetrapib has also shown promising results and is undergoing clinical trials in Europe.

A large randomized phase III study of evacetrapib is being planned.