Barter - Figure 22 - Future of CETP inhibition Text

With all of this evidence:

• the evidence in rabbits that inhibiting CETP protects;
• the explanation for the failure of torcetrapib in the ILLUMINATE trial may be the result of off-target pharmacologic effects, unrelated to CETP inhibition (stressing that this may be the case, because this is not proof).

What is the future of CETP inhibition as an anti-atherogenic strategy? As listed in the Figure, there appears to be a compelling case for further testing the hypothesis that inhibiting CETP will be anti-atherogenic in humans, so long as the hypothesis is tested with inhibitors that do not share the off-target pharmacology of torcetrapib. To prove this, it will be necessary to investigate this hypothesis in clinical outcome trials.

Barter P. J Clin Lipidol. 2011; 5(6).