Good point.  

What originally got me excited some years back, was the claim that 208 would reverse plaque in the arteries, through the reverse cholesterol transport link.  But the medical profession says that unless plaque reduction leads to MACE reduction, it is of not much use to the medics...at least based on their current understanding.  

I think this current understanding can't be correct.  Hard plaque has to be an issue, even if it does not show up as a statistical correlate to MACE right now.  In addition, a far bigger health crisis than MACE is PAD...peripheral arterial disease.  Ultimately, PAD can only be addressed by plaque regression.  And PAD affects far more people than CVD...and is a debilitating disease.

The original thinking was that raising HDL is the way to go in plaque regression, was most likely right all along.  What was not appreciated was that it only needed specific size HDL, not the largest, or the smallest.  The other drugs that were tested, did not do that do...they boosted the largest size HDL and too much.

Apabetalone on the other hand, boosts the right size HDL particles.  In fact, Phase 2 showed plaque regression with Crestor, but not with Lipitor dosed patients...and that is what threw everyone off.

Given the data so far, Resverlogix is very careful in not claiming plaque regression.  They don't want to get into trouble with the FDA before they get final approval.

As the drug is used over time, doctors will figure out the plaque regression aspect works even for non MACE but CVD people.  So my guess is that years from now, Apabetalone will have a far wider usage than the current narrow indication of CVD + DM + low HDL.  Who knows...it might become like Aspirin...we will keep finding new uses for it?  Or a mini Humira, as the Makalu analyst says?