CETP Inhibitors — A New Inning?

Former baseball manager Tony La Russa once said, “Even when you have three strikes, you’re still not out. There is always something else you can do.” This aphorism could apply to cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) inhibitors, a drug class that was designed to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by raising plasma levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. However, when the first three CETP inhibitors were added to background statin therapy, their use either paradoxically increased the risk of cardiovascular disease and death (in the case of torcetrapib1) or had neutral outcomes (dalcetrapib2 and evacetrapib3). These three strikes, combined . . .