Honestly, I am a victim of this like many other people – the one thing that we have in common is high cholesterol. There are two types of cholesterol – the bad and the good. And in most cases, people do suffer heart attach when the bad cholesterol goes high or at the very least, are candidates of any heart ailmenst.

But Cleveland Clinic’s Steven Nissen is again pursuing a drug that will attack plaque by raising number of HDL, the technical name of good cholesterol. Nissen has build a prominent career as chief cardiologist at the medical institution and run trials that helped some lifesaving drugs win approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

However, on several occasions, it wasn’t always successful for Nissen. Twice, he tested new drugs designed to keep heart diseases away by boosting good cholesterol with huge investments coming from giant Pfizer. But the strategy has yet to bear fruit and neither of these two drugs made it into the market leaving Pfizer with no heart medicine to replace its current blockbuster medication, Lipitor.

Currently, Nissen is running again clinical trials on a third treatment. This one from Resverlogix, a small Canadian company with no commercial products. If it succeeds, the medicine would help reverse the massive buidup of harmful plaque in blood vessels that causes some of the major heart ailments among age groups.

Nissen said, “I am cautious but optimistic about RVX-208. I hope it springs eternal. We need to keep trying to find an HDL-raising strategy that works.”

According to a study, people with naturally elevated HDL are less likely to suffer heart attacks or die from cardiovascular diseases. Nissen and Resverlogix are hoping that artificially raising HDL will have the same effect. Although it is not yet a sure bet, but it sure is worth the study. People who take the B vitamin niacin, for example, often show higher HDL levels, but it’s not clear this cuts heart-attack risk, one research says.