ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE Icosapent Ethyl, a Pure Ethyl Ester of Eicosapentaenoic Acid: Effects on Circulating Markers of Inflammation from the MARINE and ANCHOR Studies

The Author(s) 2013. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Background Icosapent ethyl (IPE) is a high-purity prescription form of eicosapentaenoic acid ethyl ester approved by the US Food and Drug Administration as an adjunct to diet to reduce triglyceride (TG) levels in adult patients with severe (C500 mg/dL) hypertriglyceridemia. In addition to TG-lowering effects, IPE also reduces non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and apolipoprotein B levels without significantly increasing low-density lipo-protein cholesterol (LDL-C) in patients with very high TG levels C500 mg/dL (MARINE study) and in patients with well-controlled LDL-C and residually high TG levels 200–500 mg/dL (ANCHOR study). This analysis exam-ined the effect of IPE on inflammatory markers in patients from MARINE and ANCHOR. Methods MARINE (N = 229) and ANCHOR (N = 702) were Phase III, double-blind studies that randomized hypertriglyceridemic patients to IPE 4 g/day, 2 g/day, or placebo. This analysis assessed the median placebo-adjusted percentage change from baseline in markers rep-resenting various stages of atherosclerotic inflammation such as intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), oxidized low-density lipoprotein (Ox-LDL), lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP). Results Compared to placebo, IPE 4 g/day significantl