Pharma Blog Watch

Time to Give Up on PPAR-Alpha Agonists (Pharma's Cutting Edge)
In his blog, Fred Cohen discusses data presented this week at the American College of Cardiology meeting on Eli Lilly's PPAR-alpha agonist, LY518674. "As you probably know, PPARs have been an extremely active target for the drug industry for decades," he writes. "Lilly has managed to advance its highly potent and selective PPAR-alpha agonist through Phase II studies, the first pharma to do so."

The study showed a "worrisome dose-related increase in LDL-C with LY that appeared to be correlated with baseline triglycerides in the dyslipidemia study," he continues. "This surprising finding, more than anything else in the LY studies, will contribute to an understanding of PPAR-alpha's role in human metabolism of lipoprotein metabolism, even as it signals what should be the end of the road for potent PPAR-alpha agonists.

"The bottom-line implications for those still hoping that PPAR-alpha is a good target for treating atherosclerotic combined dyslipidemia is that it's probably time to give up hope and move on to more promising targets."