Esperion Therapeutics

While some companies focus on the early stages of research and drug discovery before licensing their product to someone else, others would rather pick up a compound that's been identified as a potential therapeutic and take it through the late stages of testing and FDA approval. Esperion Therapeutics is one of these companies. Esperion is dedicated to commercializing new compounds to achieve medical breakthroughs in the areas of lipid m... More >>

While some companies focus on the early stages of research and drug discovery before licensing their product to someone else, others would rather pick up a compound that's been identified as a potential therapeutic and take it through the late stages of testing and FDA approval. Esperion Therapeutics is one of these companies. Esperion is dedicated to commercializing new compounds to achieve medical breakthroughs in the areas of lipid management and regulation. There's definitely room for more advances in this field, as high cholesterol levels have been associated with heart disease and metabolic disorders. Currently, the company has one compound in preclinical development that can be used to lower cholesterol in two ways: by inhibiting lipid synthesis and by increasing the breakdown of fatty acids. <br /> In the early stages of drug development the biggest loss of money comes from testing large numbers of compounds against the target, most of which will not lead to a successful drug. In the later phases, the loss comes from time and money invested in meeting regulatory requirements for drugs that may prove to be ineffective treatments. The success of a company such as Esperion depends on its ability to acquire new compounds or therapeutics that will prove to be effective through late development and in the marketplace. While being on this end of the drug development process has risks, Esperion's strategy of focusing on an area where their team is strongest and leaving the other stages of the process to other experts will prove beneficial to them as they pursue commercialization of new drugs.<br /> << Less