Pages

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Lipitor vs Crestor -> equals....


High doses of rosuvastatin and atorvastatin may perform equally.

NBC Nightly News (11/15, story 6, 1:35, Williams) reported, "When 1,000 volunteers took one of the drugs over two years, while special ultrasounds measured the amount of heart attack causing plaque in their arteries. Rosuvastatin [Crestor] reduced the cholesterol slightly more," than atorvastatin [Lipitor] "but overall, there was no difference." Dr. Steven Nissen of the Cleveland Clininc said, "The drugs were equally effective. They both produced reduction in plaque volume."
        USA Today (11/16, Szabo) also notes "high doses of blockbuster drugs Lipitor and Crestor did about equally well," according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association. Bloomberg News (11/16, Cortez, Langreth) says that "rosuvastatin failed to beat Pfizer Inc. (PFE)'s atorvastatin," while HealthDay (11/16, Preidt) said that both medications "reduced the amount of plaque in coronary arteries and reversed the progression of coronary artery disease," according to study results published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study enrolled "1,385 patients who took either 40 milligrams (mg) of Crestor (rosuvastatin) or 80 mg of Lipitor (atorvastatin) daily and were followed for two years." The researchers showed that "the amount of coronary artery plaque fell 0.99 percent with Lipitor and 1.22 percent with Crestor."
        Reuters (11/16, (, Berkrot, Krauskopf) reports that the rosuvastatin group had lower LDL cholesterol levels than atorvastatin (62.6 and 70.2, respectively) and had higher HDL cholesterol levels (50.4 versus 48.6). The secondary end point looked at total atheroma volume, which showed rosuvastatin was more favorable than atorvastatin, reducing it by 6.4 cubic millimeters and 4.4 cubic millimeters, respectively. Also covering the story are the Los Angeles Times "Booster Shots" blog (11/16, Roan), the Cleveland (OH) Plain Dealer (11/16, Tribble), and Heartwire (11/16, O'Riordan).

No comments:

Post a Comment