NEW ORLEANS - ASTRAZENECA'S cholesterol fighter Crestor dramatically cut deaths, heart attacks and strokes in patients with healthy cholesterol levels but who had high levels of a protein associated with heart disease, researchers said on Sunday.
Crestor, known chemically as rosuvastatin, reduced heart attack, stroke, need for bypass or angioplasty procedures and cardiovascular death by a surprising 45 per cent over less than two years.
Results of the study, funded by AstraZeneca and called Jupiter, could help open a vast new market for statins as it shines a bright light on C-reactive protein, an indicator of arterial inflammation, and its connection to serious heart risks.
Dr James Willerson, director of the Texas Heart Institute in Houston, said in a statement: 'If your high sensitivity CRP (hsCRP) is high, you should be on statin therapy regardless of your cholesterol level. This is an approach we can start using tomorrow.'
Data from the study should also help differentiate Crestor from rivals such as Pfizer's Lipitor in a crowded cholesterol market that includes generic options.
The study found that heart attacks were cut by 54 per cent, strokes by 48 per cent and the need for angioplasty or bypass was cut by 46 per cent compared with a placebo. Study subjects taking Crestor were also 20 per cent less likely to die from any cause, a secondary goal of the trial.
The benefits to men, women and minorities alike with healthy cholesterol levels were nearly twice what doctors expect from statins among even patients with high cholesterol.
But these were patients who under current guidelines would never be prescribed a statin - already the world's most widely used prescription drugs - because they had excellent cholesterol levels.
'Half of all heart attacks and strokes occur in men and women with normal cholesterol,' said Dr Paul Ridker, director of the Centre for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, who led the study.
'We can no longer assume that a patient with low cholesterol is a safe patient,' he said in an interview.
Dr Robert Glynn, the study's statistician, estimated that about 250,000 heart attacks, strokes, angioplasty and bypass procedures or deaths could be avoided in the United States alone if the Jupiter strategy was applied for five years.
The Jupiter data should provide a stark contrast between Crestor and rival combination cholesterol medicine Vytorin sold by Merck & Co and Schering-Plough, which has been under assault from critics who say it has not proved that it cuts heart attack or death and may raise cancer risks. -- REUTERS
Crestor, known chemically as rosuvastatin, reduced heart attack, stroke, need for bypass or angioplasty procedures and cardiovascular death by a surprising 45 per cent over less than two years.
Results of the study, funded by AstraZeneca and called Jupiter, could help open a vast new market for statins as it shines a bright light on C-reactive protein, an indicator of arterial inflammation, and its connection to serious heart risks.
Dr James Willerson, director of the Texas Heart Institute in Houston, said in a statement: 'If your high sensitivity CRP (hsCRP) is high, you should be on statin therapy regardless of your cholesterol level. This is an approach we can start using tomorrow.'
Data from the study should also help differentiate Crestor from rivals such as Pfizer's Lipitor in a crowded cholesterol market that includes generic options.
The study found that heart attacks were cut by 54 per cent, strokes by 48 per cent and the need for angioplasty or bypass was cut by 46 per cent compared with a placebo. Study subjects taking Crestor were also 20 per cent less likely to die from any cause, a secondary goal of the trial.
The benefits to men, women and minorities alike with healthy cholesterol levels were nearly twice what doctors expect from statins among even patients with high cholesterol.
But these were patients who under current guidelines would never be prescribed a statin - already the world's most widely used prescription drugs - because they had excellent cholesterol levels.
'Half of all heart attacks and strokes occur in men and women with normal cholesterol,' said Dr Paul Ridker, director of the Centre for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, who led the study.
'We can no longer assume that a patient with low cholesterol is a safe patient,' he said in an interview.
Dr Robert Glynn, the study's statistician, estimated that about 250,000 heart attacks, strokes, angioplasty and bypass procedures or deaths could be avoided in the United States alone if the Jupiter strategy was applied for five years.
The Jupiter data should provide a stark contrast between Crestor and rival combination cholesterol medicine Vytorin sold by Merck & Co and Schering-Plough, which has been under assault from critics who say it has not proved that it cuts heart attack or death and may raise cancer risks. -- REUTERS
