Heartbreaking Results

Everybody believed that raising the good cholesterol, HDL, ought to have a beneficial effect. And this drug was very powerful at raising HDL—it could raise it by at least 50 percent--and that led to very high expectations.

How does torcetrapib differ from statin drugs like Lipitor?

Statins lower the bad cholesterol, or LDL, via the liver. This drug works by a different mechanism to raise the good cholesterol, HDL.

Nissen says there were high expectations for torcetrapib

What do these deaths suggest about other drugs that are intended to raise HDL?

There are two possibilities. One is it is an effect due to toxicity of this specific drug, torcetrapib. It's also possible other drugs in the class would cause the same adverse effect, so it's put a chill on developing the entire class.