That’s what Prudential Equity analyst Tim Anderson says in an investor note this morning about Pfizer’s calamitous cardiovascular drug, which was yanked last year due to a high death rate.

The beleaguered drugmaker will show results of three ultrasound tests on Monday at the annual American College of Cardiology meeting, which this year takes place in New Orleans, The images examined arterial plaque changes and Anderson says the findings probably won’t be conclusive.

At issue: whether the problems that caused Pfizer to end its late-stage trial were unique to its drug or if there’s a class effect. This would have significant implications for Merck and Roche, which are developing their own CETP inhibitors, as well as Pfizer, which has back-up compounds. The premise behind this group of drugs, by the way, is to raise HDL, or good cholesterol, instead of lowering LDL, the bad kind. A novel endpoint = big money at stake.

“If imaging results on torcetrapib are indeterminate, these companies will have to do some serious soul searching to determine whether they want to continue spending time and money developing their own respective CETP inhibitors,” says Anderson. Pharmalot will have a correspondent in New Orleans to tell us more.

[tags]CETP Inhibitors, Merck, Pfizer, Roche, Torcetrapib[/tags]