THERAPEUTIC FOCUS

CARDIOVASCULAR

Cardiovascular disease encompasses many different diseases with patients often suffering from multiple conditions. The most prevalent type is hypertension, or high blood pressure, with 85% of U.S. coronary heart disease (CHD) patients suffering from this condition. It is estimated that total U.S. pharmaceutical sales in the cardiovascular segment in 2006 were approximately $43.7 billion.

DYSLIPIDEMIA
Over 50% of U.S. CHD patients have dyslipidemia, including elevated blood cholesterol levels, with the overall U.S. dyslipidemia population believed to be in excess of 100 million. Dyslipidemia may be manifested by:
• high levels of "bad" low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol,
• high levels of triglycerides and
• low levels of "good" high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol in the blood.

The dyslipidemia market, excluding statins, was estimated at approximately $2.2 billion in 2006, representing a compound annual growth rate of 31% since 2002.The major driver of this growth is believed to be an overall broadening of dyslipidemia treatment beyond reduction LDL cholesterol.

Hypertriglyceridemia, a component of dyslipidemia where patients have high blood levels of triglycerides, is associated with increased levels of heart disease. Over 10 million people in the U.S. are diagnosed with hypertriglyceridemia. Amarin’s AMR101 is being progressed to Phase III development for hypertriglyceridemia.