Drugs to raise good cholesterol to clear arteries, to prevent cholesterol from sticking to the artery wall and to decrease inflammation in the arteries have all failed.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Older drugs like Lipitor aim to prevent the cholesterol from ever getting to the arteries.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Right now, the gold standard in cholesterol medication is a class of drugs called the statins, which prevent the liver from making cholesterol from fat.

FORBES: Schering-Plough And Merck's New Hope

But cholesterol drugs are taken to prevent something from happening in the future.

FORBES: Statin Strain

The object was to test whether treating patients early and aggressively with a cholesterol-lowering drug would prevent them from having a second heart attack, having a stroke, returning to the hospital or dying.

FORBES: Cholesterol Study Poses Dangers For Merck

Both work by inhibiting an obscure molecule called the cholesterol ester transfer protein (CETP) that works indirectly to prevent HDL from being used to create low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the bad cholesterol.

FORBES: Magazine Article

These medicines, called acyl-CoA cholesterol acyl-transferase (ACAT) inhibitors, aim to prevent plaque from sticking to the walls of the arteries.

FORBES: Big In Japan

Neurological side effects seem the most likely reason for the long delay--and they could conceivably prevent Acomplia from joining the ranks of blockbuster drugs like Plavix and Lipitor, the Pfizer cholesterol pill.

FORBES: Magazine Article