CLEVELAND, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- A Cleveland doctor says use of niacin as a cholesterol drug is likely to increase following the failure of a drug that was found to increase heart problems.
Dr. Steven Nissen, a cardiologist at the famed Cleveland Clinic and president of the American College of Cardiology, said niacin, a B vitamin that raises HDL, commonly known as good cholesterol, is likely to increase in prominence after trials of the Pfizer Inc. cholesterol drug torcetrapib failed, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
Raising HDL levels in patients helps to reduce lower blood levels of LDL, or bad cholesterol.
"There's a great unfilled need for something that raises HDL," Nissen said. "Right now, in the wake of the failure of torcetrapib, niacin is really it. Nothing else available is that effective."
Niacin, in its therapeutic form of nicotinic acid, has been found to increase HDL levels by as much as 35 percent, as well as reduce levels of artery-clogging triglycerides by as much as 50 percent.
