I heard a broadast report announcing successful testing of an
investigational coumpound that increases HDL levels in the blood. The
name of the compound "sounded" something like "torcetrapin", but not
knowing how it is actually spelled I can't find it on the web. Any
ideas on how to find this? The news story was within the past 3 days.

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Clarification of Question by gowoso-ga on 09 Apr 2004 09:54 PDT

I heard a broadcast report announcing successful testing of an
investigational compound that increases HDL levels in the blood. The
name of the compound "sounded" something like "torcetrapin", but not
knowing how it is actually spelled I can't find it on the web. Any
ideas on how to find this? The news story was within the past 3 days.
The reference was NOT to "Lipitor"-like drugs that reduce total blood
lipids (they have somewhat similar generic compound names) it was
specifically for a medication that was effective at boosting HDL.

I am confident that the drug you're referring to is torcetrapib.

"Pfizer Inc.?s torcetrapib, which is designed to inhibit cholesteryl
ester transfer protein, increased HDL cholesterol levels and decreased
LDL cholesterol levels when used as monotherapy or in combination with
Pfizer?s Lipitor (atorvastatin calcium) during a recent trial."

Pharmaceutical Executive
http://www.pharmexec.com/pharmexec/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=91656

More info:

New England Journal of Medicine
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/350/15/1505

USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-04-07-cholesterol-drug_x.htm

WebMd
http://my.webmd.com/content/article/85/98542.htm?z=1728_00000_1000_nb_01

AP News MyWay
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040408/D81QAL080.html

Google Web Search: "torcetrapib" +"hdl"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=torcetrapib+hdl

If anything is unclear, or if this is not the drug you heard about,
please request clarification; I'll gladly offer further assistance
before you rate my answer.

Best regards,
pinkfreud

Sounds right. Thanks.

If you want to stay on top of the news about torcetrapib, Google News
is a good place to start:

Google News Search
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&edition=us&q=torcetrapib