Amarin Corporation plc (ADR) (AMRN) & More: Who’s Being Tested?

Big test in progress
Amarin Corporation plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:AMRN) is testing Vascepa in a heart outcomes trial. The results are likely to dictate whether the drug stays on the market or, at the very least, how well it sells. Changing laboratory tests is nice, but outcomes are what doctors and patients really care about.

It certainly would have been nice to see 1 gram of omega-3 fatty acids lower heart-related issues. If the low dose worked, Vascepa would have been a shoo-in. Of course, it cuts both ways. If 1 gram of omega-3 fatty acids had worked, patients could just buy cheap supplements and wouldn’t need an expensive prescription drug.

As I outlined earlier, I have a hard time arguing that the 1-gram trial proves that Vascepa won’t succeed; the products are just too different.

Vascepa still has an uphill battle, though. The patients in the outcomes trial are taking a statin such as Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)‘s Lipitor, Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)‘s Zocor, or AstraZeneca plc (ADR) (NYSE:AZN)‘s Crestor, which do a pretty good job of lowering heart complications on their own. It can be hard to measure a further decrease when you add a drug to the mix. That’s what happened to Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)’s Cordaptive, which increased good HDL cholesterol, reduced bad LDL cholesterol, and lowered lipid levels, but failed to show an effect in an outcomes trial.

We’ll have to wait for the clinical trial to read out in a few years before we’ll know whether we can see a less wishy-washy statement about fish oil and cardiovascular health.

The article Some Fish Oil Doesn’t Help Some Patients in Some Countries originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Brian Orelli and The Motley Fool have no position in any of the stocks mentioned.

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