Cholesterol Remains a Sticky Foe

In one test, the Lilly medication raised levels of bad cholesterol. Also, both drugs were found to increase levels of serum creatinine, an early warning for potential kidney problems. The Lilly-sponsored research was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The Lilly drug, licensed from Ligand Pharmaceuticals,(LGND Quote), was in the second of three phases of clinical trials. Lilly suspended research in September "to assess unexpected findings noted during animal safety studies" and review clinical data already gathered, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A Lilly spokeswoman said this week that the company will consider "future development options" after analyzing the data. Lilly's compound belongs to a group of drugs known as PPAR-alpha agonists, which includes TriCor and the generic gemfibrozil.

Another type of heart-disease drug has AstraZeneca debating if it wants to take a chance -- and spend a lot more money -- on its collaboration with AtheroGenics(AGIX Quote).

The AtheroGenics drug AGI-1067 is designed to reduce arterial plaque, but it isn't an HDL-raising compound. However, recently-released test results show that the drug actually lowered good cholesterol and raised bad cholesterol.

The drug failed to meet its primary goal of significantly reducing the risk of death, heart attack, nonfatal stroke and other heart-disease indicators when compared with a placebo.

AtheroGenics says there's enough positive information to continue testing, but investors aren't encouraged. The stock is off 66% since the company announced the test results on March 19, just before the cardiology conference.