"Further, my guess is that we will hear that they have reached 250 adjudicated MACE sometime in May/June.  If it’s sooner then great but since that PR will leave no room for error I’ll err on the side of caution, especially since those numbers have been somewhat inconclusive to date.  Then we’re looking at topline results, probably by the end of August or sometime in September.  So, let’s say 6 months before things get interesting either way.  JMHO"

Between Tada's belief of top-line by April to Paladin's conservative estimate of top-line in Aug/Sept, that's a lot of wiggle room! 

"Even if the results don’t come in quite as good as is anticipated, does that necessarily spell the end for apabetalone?"

No, but look out below for the share price drop and market cap valuation.  

"Further, as regards that shortcoming in the Phase 2 (was it ASSURE?) trial, would they have tweeked the formula to try and compensate for that prior to commencing the Phase 3 trial?"

No tweaking of the apabetalone/RVX-208/RVX000222 formula as far as I know. Just learning from post-hoc of ASSURE/SUSTAIN to choose the right population (diabetic, low-HDL, recent ACS) with the possibility of the rosuvastatin subgroup giving mic drop unprecedented MACE reduction based on the plaque reducing observations in the apabetalone/rosuvastatin/low-HDL subgroup.

BearDownAZ