Amarin Corp Plc (AMRN)

[jessellivermore]

"how do the JELIS results align with the recent NEJM news on TG's? Does this provide insight into possible REDUCE-IT efficacy in your opinion?"

JELIS was designed to discover whether adding EPA (1.8gm/day) to patients on statins would lower CVD risk by some unspecified manner. Trigs are lowered by EPA so conceivably this might have played a role in the CVD event lowering that was observed.

The NEJM article dealt with genetic mutations that resulted in low levels of APOc3 a lipoprotein carrier for trigs. Lowered CVD risk was found in individuals with this gene. At present time there are several possible ways lowered trigs might lower CVD..they effect LDL-C particle numbers. An interesting aspect of the NEJM papers was that the authors concentrated on non fasting trigs as opposed to fasting which is normally the gold standard. Patients with the mutations did not raise their trig levels after eating bouts. This suggests that trigs might behave like blood sugar, where the sugar spikes which cause insulin release are really the problem. The truth is are present we do not know whether elevated trigs are simply a biomarker for lifestyle issues, or a poison.

There is probably no good answer to your question..We do not know enough. JELIS on the other hand is very strong evidence that REDUCE-IT should work out. The only issue is the statin question. The best evidence for R-IT to work is actually population studies that tie CVD risk to EPA/AA ratios...They say R-IT is "in the bag"..

":>) JL