  Pfizer 'Good' Cholesterol Drug Could Revamp Therapy NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lowering "bad" cholesterol is the holy grail of cholesterol treatment, but boosting "good" cholesterol could become an equal pillar of therapy if a ground-breaking drug being developed by Pfizer Inc. succeeds in clinical trials.
Cholesterol is a blood fat the body needs for its metabolism. But when it's too plentiful it clogs arteries and becomes a major cause of heart attacks and strokes. It consists of a good form called HDL (high density lipoprotein) and the bad variety known as LDL (low density lipoprotein) which both interact in the bloodstream. The experimental drug, code named CP-529,414, raised levels of the good form a whopping 55 percent in clinical trials -- about ten-fold higher than elevations typically seen with today's leading cholesterol treatments, called statins.
In addition to boosting protective HDL, the Pfizer drug also lowers harmful LDL up to 20 percent. That's about a third as much as the world's two top-selling cholesterol drugs, Pfizer's own $7 billion-a-year Lipitor ( news - web sites) and Merck and Co.'s $6.5 billion Zocor. The new drug would be used in combination with Lipitor, but it will be at least several years before it becomes available, assuming it clears all regulatory hurdles regarding safety and effectiveness.
New York-based Pfizer plans to put CP-529,414 and Lipitor into a single potent pill, a move that could also extend the U.S. patent life of Lipitor from 2011 to 2018. "The combination of Lipitor with this new drug offers the potential of raising HDL cholesterol by 50 percent and lowering LDL by 70 percent to 80 percent. No other combination of drugs can come close to doing this," Pfizer research chief Peter Corr recently said in a meeting. 
