<International Circulation>: Would you please summarize the new highlights in the latest research on HDL therapy?

Dr. Waksman: Currently we have a lot of limitations with the available pharmaceuticals. We are gearing towards more innovative approaches to raise HDL because patients with a high HDL seem to have less cardiovascular events. One methodology I will describe at the meeting is using plasmapheresis and isolating pre-beta HDL， which is the more protective HDL， and re-infusing the patient’s own pre-beta HDL back into the system. We have demonstrated by IVUS reduction of atheroma in patients with acute coronary syndrome. The ApoA-1 Milan that made a lot of news about a decade ago has been licensed to a pharmaceutical company that will first conduct an imaging study to see the impact of infusion of those molecules within 7~8 weeks and will assess reduction of the plaque atheroma. When you give statins for 2~3 years you can see a halt in progression or very minimal regression but we feel with HDL therapy we can do it within several weeks and that is an exciting new direction in atherosclerosis management. Also， there are some other molecules that are being proposed for study soon. Although we had some failures with the CETP inhibitors， but the concept as a whole is valid and the question is how to implement it in an efficient and affordable way.