NEW YORK – Resverlogix Corp., without a marketed product, may accomplish what Pfizer Inc., the world’s biggest drugmaker, couldn’t: Creating a new medicine that fights heart disease by raising so-called good cholesterol.

If the treatment, dubbed RVX-208, shows it can reverse the buildup of artery-clogging plaque, it may grab a “substantial” portion of the $35 billion cholesterol-fighting market, said Simos Simeonidis, an analyst with Rodman & Renshaw in New York.

Resverlogix is in “detailed discussions” with several companies seeking to partner or license the drug, said Chief Executive Officer Donald McCaffrey, 51. He declined to identify the potential partners.

New York-based Pfizer spent more than $2 billion on two similar treatments without success. The drugs were tested by Steven Nissen, 61, the Cleveland Clinic cardiology chief who is leading the Resverlogix trials.

Nissen said RVX-208 works differently from the Pfizer drugs, switching on a protein that helps spur the production of HDL, or good cholesterol.

“There is definitely a lot of interest from big pharma” in Resverlogix’s candidate, Simeonidis said. “If this drug works, it could be as big as Lipitor.”

Pfizer’s Lipitor, the world’s best-selling drug, generated $11.4 billion in revenue last year, according to statistics compiled by Bloomberg.

Best-selling heart drugs Lipitor and AstraZeneca’s Crestor lower production of so-called bad cholesterol, or LDL, by blocking an enzyme in the liver. These drugs belong to a class of medicines known as statins.

Resverlogix’s product would increase the levels of a protein called ApoA-1 that helps produce HDL, which removes bad cholesterol from arterial plaque and ferries it to the liver where it can be disposed.

People with naturally high levels of HDL are less likely to develop heart attacks or die from cardiovascular disease, studies show.