Coronary heart disease (CHD) remains the leading cause of death and disability in the Western world, with approximately 12.6 million individuals in the United States having a history of myocardial infarction (MI), angina, or both. There is mounting evidence that "conventional" therapies aimed at traditional risk factors have not optimized clinical outcomes. For example, in the Heart Protection Study with 20,536 subjects, the 5-year risk of a first major vascular event (nonfatal MI or CHD death, stroke, or coronary or noncoronary revascularization) among placebo-treated patients was 25%. Treatment with simvastatin reduced this risk to 20% over 5 years, which would project out to a 10-year risk of 40%. (The National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III considers "high risk" or CHD equivalent a 10-year risk of an event greater than 20%.) Even among patients entering the study with baseline low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) already near or at goal (i.e., LDL-C less than 116 mg/dL) and who achieved a mean on-trial LDL-C of 70 mg/dL with simvastatin, the 5-year risk of an event was still 18% (projecting to a 10-year risk of 36%). This residual and unacceptably high risk is likely due to the increasing prevalence of obesity, type II diabetes mellitus, and the metabolic syndrome. These disorders are typically accompanied by a constellation of abnormalities that include impaired glycemic control, hypertension, procoagulant and inflammatory states, and atherogenic dyslipidemia. The latter includes a wide spectrum of lipid abnormalities (low HDL-C, high triglycerides and triglyceride-rich remnant lipoproteins, and a preponderance of small dense, highly-oxidizable LDL particles).