ILLUMINATE

Pfizer (torcetrapib + atorvastatin) · NCT00134264 · 1 July 2004

Status Terminated December 2006 for excess mortality

15,067 patients randomised to torcetrapib plus atorvastatin or atorvastatin alone, halted in December 2006 for excess mortality and cardiovascular events in the torcetrapib arm. The single most consequential trial in the history of the class.

ILLUMINATE stopped a drug, damaged a hypothesis and set the safety agenda for everything that followed. The excess events were traced to off-target effects on aldosterone, blood pressure and electrolytes rather than to CETP inhibition as such, a distinction that took years to establish and that every subsequent programme has had to demonstrate for itself. A safety follow-up study of 26,784 participants (NCT00452842) extended the observation period.

Page updated 18 August 2026.