cs99 - Around 2008 I remember hearing DM say something very similar to what you just said. RVX used rabbits and African Green Monkeys. What I believe I heard at that time is that the African Green Monkeys had the closest blood lipid profile to humans. Those tests were much more relevant to the RVX-208 tests that were being carried out at that time. Two other things came to mind when that memory surfaced, someone on the Stockhouse BB named the monkey Cocco, and the FDA made the company go back and do some kind of mouse model test years later as it was a protocol which had not been done in the past even though it was irrelevant.

That mouse model test, even though it was irrelevant and the science had gone way beyond that point, cost the company a lot of money and time delay before the next trial could begin.

It's kind of funny in a way thinking back when the FDA has now granted RVX a BTD and want to help them get in the express lane today. It wasn't funny at the time though, l'm pretty sure DM articulated a few notty words when he was told that an irrelevant mouse model had to be done.

tada