Why was ACCORD looking at adding a fibrate drug to statin medication for type 2 diabetes patients?
People with type 2 diabetes very often have a combination of high blood levels of LDL cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol, and high triglycerides. LDL cholesterol is a major risk factor for CVD in general and in patients with type 2 diabetes in particular. Statin medications are very effective at reducing the levels of LDL cholesterol. Many clinical trials have shown that treatment with statins lowers the rates of heart attacks and cardiovascular death. On the other hand, fibrate medications are used to increase the blood levels of the good HDL cholesterol as well as reduce triglycerides (another form of fat made in the blood). Unlike the statins, which are used to lower LDL cholesterol, there was no definitive evidence from previous clinical trials that using a fibrate to increase HDL cholesterol and decrease triglyceride levels in combination with a statin to control LDL cholesterol would reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes in patients with type 2 diabetes. A clinical trial was
