Medical Need

Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular disease includes a wide range of conditions and treatment is focused on reducing cardiovascular risk factors to prevent an acute cardiovascular event and on preventing or delaying the onset of chronic cardiovascular disease. Important risk factors for cardiovascular disease are abnormal levels of lipids and/or lipoproteins such as triglycerides and cholesterol. Increased serum levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL - "bad cholesterol") and low levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL - "good cholesterol"), the latter being recognized as the most important risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease, are known as dyslipidemia. Dyslipidemia promotes plaque formation and narrowing of the arteries atherosclerosis leading to myocardial infarction (heart attack), stroke and peripheral vascular and neurodegenerative disease. Over 750,000 Americans die every year due to atherosclerosis related cardiovascular complications.1 Statins, including medications such as Lipitor®, Zocor® and Crestor®.2, are used to decrease LDL, but are little effective on raising HDL creating an unmet treatment gap. It is estimated that over 100 million American adults have total blood cholesterol values considered borderline-high (200 to 240 mg/dL) or high (above 240 mg/dL) potentially eligible for a cholesterol lowering agent.3 Even though statins are widely prescribed creating a worldwide $30 billion market, they have less effect than fibrates or niacin in reducing triglycerides and raising HDL-cholesterol ("good cholesterol").4 This unmet medical need creates a growing billion dollar market space for safe monotherapies as well as combination products therapeutics containing a statin and an HDL raising product agent such as our products.

• 1 Atherosclerosis Research Unit. University of Southern California.
• 2 CNN Money.
• 3 Centers for disease control and prevention, CDC.
• 4 Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 5, 813-814 (October 2006) | doi:10.1038/nrd2156.
  Life after statin patent expiries. Jane Kidd