AstraZeneca’s Crestor compares favourably to other statins, says study

A new study comparing rosuvastatin, the anti-cholesterol statin marketed by AstraZeneca as Crestor, with different dosages of atorvastatin and simvastatin has found that more patients using Crestor reached the goals of the study.

The trial, conducted at 152 centres throughout North America and South America, found that patients switching from atorvastatin and simvastatin to Crestor experienced “significant reductions” in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels (commonly referred to as “bad cholesterol”).

Some 66 per cent of patients who switched from atorvastatin to Crestor at 10 milligram levels met their LDL targets, compared to 43 per cent who stayed on atorvastatin, while 73 per cent of those who switched from simvastatin to Crestor met theirs, compared to 32 per cent of those who remained on simvastatin.

The report said: “The proportion of patients who achieved the target of <100 mg/dL at 8 weeks on initial therapy [shows] that switching to rosuvastatin significantly increased the proportion of patients reaching this target at 16 weeks compared with remaining on initial therapy." “Adding to the documented efficacy and safety of the 10-mg start dose, the data in this large trial reinforce that rosuvastatin 20 mg is an effective and safe therapeutic option for patients who need to achieve their lipid and apolipoprotein targets,” it concluded. Atorvastatin is marketed by Pfizer as Lipitor, the world’s best-selling anti-cholesterol drug, while simvastatin is marketed as Zocor by Merck. AstraZeneca reported that sales in Crestor had risen by 42 per cent in its first quarter of 2006. In 2005 the company took $1.27 billion (668.7 million pounds) in Crestor sales, ranking fifth behind Nexium, Seroquel, Seloken/Torprol XL and Losec.
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