Ann Arbor area scientist Roger Newton's quest to commercialize a drug that raises so-called "good" cholesterol advanced Friday as his startup company, Esperion Therapeutics, launched its first clinical trial.

Newton, co-discoverer of "bad" cholesterol-lowering pill Lipitor, the world's best-selling prescription drug, is launching a Phase 1 clinical trial to study the drug candidate ETC-1002. The drug is based on intellectual property Newton acquired from Pfizer Inc. in 2008 when he secured $22.75 million in venture capital to restart Plymouth Township-based Esperion.

Pfizer bought the first Esperion in 2004 for $1.3 billion but proceeded to close it in 2007 when the company announced it would leave the Ann Arbor area.

Esperion officials hope that ETC-1002 can lower "bad" LDL cholesterol and raise "good" HDL cholesterol. It's a steep challenge -- the industry has failed to commercialize therapies that successfully raise HDL cholesterol.

AnnArbor.com reported last month that Esperion was edging close to its first clinical trial.

“Just over a year and a half following the re-establishment of Esperion, we continue to progress toward our goal of bringing breakthrough cardiovascular and metabolic disease therapies to market," Newton said in a press release. "We are very well positioned to move ahead with the development effort for ETC-1002 as we also advance our other promising pre-clinical research programs in both acute and chronic therapies to treat cardiovascular and metabolic disorders."

Clinical development of drugs can vary widely in length and expense. It's likely to take several years, however, before the drug has a chance of reaching the market.

Contact AnnArbor.com's Nathan Bomey at (734) 623-2587 or nathanbomey@annarbor.com. You can also follow him on Twitter.