Epidemiological studies reveal an independent inverse relationship between HDL-C concentrations and CHD (1976)

Elucidation of monogenic disorders affecting HDL-C concentrations including CETP deficiency (1989)

CETP inhibitors developed as potential antiatherogenic therapies (1990)

APOA1 overexpression reduces atherosclerosis in animal models (1991)

ABCA1 deficiency elucidated as the cause of Tangier Disease (1999)

ABCA1 found to be an LXR target (2000)

LXR activators reduce atherosclerosis (2002)

The first CETP inhibitor in clinical trials (torcetrapib) increases CHD and overall mortality (2007)

Dozens of novel SNPs found to associate with HDL concentrations in human GWAS (2010)

Cholesterol efflux capacity of HDL correlates inversely with CHD independent of HDL-C (2011)

Mendelian Randomization studies suggest that SNPs that associate with HDL-C concentrations do not associate with CHD (2012)

The CETP inhibitor anacetrapib produces a significant but moderate reduction in CHD. The sponsors decline to seek marketing approval (2017)

Reconstituted HDL preparations optimized for human phase 3 studies (2018)