Statin Drugs Fail Half UK Heart Patients -Study

October 8, 2003

Sun Oct 5,12:23 PM ET Add Health - Reuters to My

LONDON (Reuters) - Half of British heart disease patients failed to

get their cholesterol down to recommended levels after taking

cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, according to results of a

clinical study released on Sunday.

Use of statins has increased dramatically throughout the Western

world in recent years, led by Pfizer Inc's Lipitor (news - web

sites), which is now the world's top-selling medicine with annual

sales of $8 billion.

But Adrian Brady, consultant cardiologist at Glasgow Royal

Infirmary, told a meeting of the Primary Care Cardiovascular Society

in Dublin that only 48 percent of 14,000 patients evaluated in a UK

study reached national cholesterol goals.

The finding echoes results from other clinical trials suggesting

doctors may not be making the most of statin drugs to get patients

to their recommended cholesterol levels.

Brady said less than two-thirds of patients had their cholesterol re-

checked within three months of starting medication and a large

proportion never had the dose of their statin increased.

Most doctors, however, were unaware of the problem. A survey

completed by 220 general practitioners as part of the study revealed

that, in evaluating their own performance, GPs thought 80 percent of

their patients were achieving cholesterol targets.

Brady's research was sponsored by AstraZeneca Plc, which claims its

recently launched Crestor, also known as rosuvastatin, is more

effective than the older statins evaluated in the study.

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