Amarin Corp Plc (AMRN)

[Pyrrhonian]

That is an odd response to the study. It's pretty clear from its published data that hsCRP was significantly impacted by Lovaza, so.. ?

But anyway, don't forget our favorite pro-corn-oil study that showed the 4g/d dose of Omacor (Lovaza) trended in the wrong direction:

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/74/1/50.long

Beneficial changes in lipid profiles and inflammatory markers just weren't enough to reduce risk of MACE. And there may have been some contrary pro-inflammatory responses that raised risk at the higher dose (as my research revealed elsewhere, including elevated TBARS, decreased vit E in serum, increases in sE-sel and sVCAM-1, reduced endothelial secretion of PAI-1, etc.). You get the good, but you also get the bad. And when high EPA is present without DHA, HDL3 also takes a major hit. That is also associated with a marked increase in MACE risk.

But, not to get too lost in the weeds, I really wanted to bring up a simple point on hsCRP. Niacin seems to affect this inflammatory marker significantly as well:

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/556549_3

and

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4804877/

Yet, we know how the niacin studies turned out wrt MACE reduction...

So, is it really the hsCRP lowering effect of canakinumab that resulted in reduced MACE? As with statins lowering LDL-C, it's unknown. The exact MoA of statins remains a bit mysterious. As we know from the many cancer vaccine attempts, nice changes in "biomarkers" doesn't mean squat.

EPA is weak. It's food. Taking an extra teaspoon of fish oil a day is just not going to cut it. Especially when it's heaped on top of a bacon double cheeseburger with fries ;)