Discontinuation of dalcetrapib leaves Merck's anacetrapib as the front-running novel CETP inhibitor for dyslipidemia

The discontinuation of Swiss drug major Roche (ROG: SIX) and Japan Tobacco’s dalcetrapib earlier this year (The Pharma Letter May 8) leaves US pharma giant Merck & Co’s (NYSE: MRK) anacetrapib as the front-runner in the novel CETP inhibitor drug class in the dyslipidemia drug market, according to a new report from health care advisory firm Decision Resources.

However, dalcetrapib’s discontinuation has cast doubt upon the entire CETP inhibitor class and calls into question the high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) hypothesis, which previously came under fire when niacin (Abbott’s Niaspan) failed to show outcomes benefit in the AIM-HIGH clinical trial.

The Pharmacor advisory service entitled Dyslipidemia also finds that key agents that will lose market exclusivity worldwide through 2021 include the statins atorvastatin (Pfizer’s Lipitor; generically available in 2011 in the USA) and rosuvastatin (AstraZeneca/Shionogi’s Crestor), as well as ezetimibe (Merck’s Zetia), ezetimibe/simvastatin (Merck’s Vytorin), Merck’s pipeline agent ezetimibe/atorvastatin and ER niacin.