Hypolipidemic drugs that are efficacious in man are not always active in classical animal
models of dyslipidemia. Inhibitors of HMG-CoA reductase (statins) do not lower plasma
cholesterol in rats, but yet this species was alone in providing activity for fibrate-type drugs.
Nicotinic acid possesses many desirable features with regard to clinical use, but most of
these actions are lacking in rats and monkeys. The metabolism of low density lipoproteins in
hamsters is widely thought to be similar to that in humans, yet neither statins or fibrates lower …