Defending Esperion

A 47-patient study in tomorrow's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that Esperion Therapeutics' experimental medicine, ETC-216, cleared cholesterol plaque from clogged arteries. An accompanying editorial says that the results are good enough to surprise even the most optimistic supporters of Esperion's approach. But while Esperion (nasdaq: ESPR - news - people ) executives and medical researchers seem ready to break out champagne, Wall Street held a funeral. Yesterday, Esperion shares lost a quarter of their value on misinterpretations of the JAMA report, and they continued to dip today.