Michael Davidson is a world-renowned cardiologist, lipidologist, and the founding CEO of NewAmsterdam Pharma. He begins this episode by sharing how his family history shaped his interest in lipidology and primary prevention. He explains why prevention should focus on causal drivers of disease rather than near-term risk and examines the causal relationship between LDL and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
0:00:00 - Intro
0:00:11 - Michael’s path to lipidology, and his passion for primary prevention
0:07:54 - Reframing prevention around causal drivers rather than time horizon
0:14:11 - What CETP inhibition does, the evolutionary biology of CETP, the HDL-raising rationale, and Pfizer's torcetrapib failure
0:24:38 - Why raising HDL is thought to be beneficial, a quick review of the functions of HDL, and how this connects to torcetrapib
0:28:29 - The graveyard of CETP inhibitors: Roche's dalcetrapib, Lilly's evacetrapib, and Merck's REVEAL trial
0:37:13 - The causality of LDL in cardiovascular disease
0:40:23 - Reviving obicetrapib at NewAmsterdam, and confirming the benefit is LDL lowering: the TULIP data, the abandoned statin-intolerance path, and the Mendelian randomization verdict on HDL
0:49:21 - Phase 2 and phase 3 trials of obicetrapib—ROSE, BROOKLYN, BROADWAY, and TANDEM—and the PREVAIL outcomes trial, with the European and US approval paths
0:56:07 - Discordance among LDL-C, LDL-P, and apoB with CETP inhibition, and obicetrapib's Lp(a)-lowering effect
1:04:41 - Where obicetrapib fits in the lipid-lowering toolkit, the case against high-dose statins, and the problem of drug pricing
1:12:03 - The case for obicetrapib in Alzheimer's: the APOE4 and CETP genetics, the animal models, and funding Alzheimer's research
1:17:12 - Brain cholesterol metabolism and the APOE4 mechanism: the blood-brain barrier, astrocyte cholesterol efflux, the amyloid-tau cascade, the role of HDL, and why statins don't cause Alzheimer's disease
1:29:11 - The biomarker evidence: the CSF pilot study, Alzheimer's as a disease of middle age, the pharma graveyard problem, and the p-tau 217 results from BROADWAY
1:41:33 - Whether obicetrapib translates into clinical benefit for Alzheimer’s disease: the risk of fooling yourself, the persistence of the amyloid dogma, ARIA in APOE4 homozygotes, and the next prevention trial
1:50:32 - Fish oil, EPA, and DHA: the cardiovascular trials and the challenge of delivering DHA to the brain
1:57:50 - Two open problems: using AI to reform clinical trials, and the statin–diabetes signal
2:06:22 - What it takes to develop a drug, the biotech investment landscape, and the klotho program
2:15:31 - Closing reflections: what to do if you carry APOE4, balancing motivation against over-testing, and the need for multiple therapies
View show notes here: https://peterattiamd.com/michaeldavidson/
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About:
The Peter Attia Drive is a deep-dive podcast focusing on maximizing longevity, and all that goes into that from physical to cognitive to emotional health. With over 90 million episodes downloaded, it features topics including exercise, nutritional biochemistry, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, mental health, and much more.
Peter Attia is the founder of Early Medical, a medical practice that applies the principles of Medicine 3.0 to patients with the goal of lengthening their lifespan and simultaneously improving their healthspan.
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