Crestor compared to Lipitor in heart study: Which one won?

By: Ryan Jaslow
Topics: News ,; Heart ,; Research

(Credit: iStockphoto)

(CBS/AP) Drug-maker AstraZeneca gambled on a study that pitted its cholesterol-lowering drug Crestor Pfizer's Lipitor. The gamble didn't pay off - Crestor proved no better at preventing arterial plaques than Lipitor.

The two-year study - scheduled to be presented November 15 at an American Heart Association conference in Orlando Fla. - looked at 1,300 high-risk heart patients to see which drug was superior. Crestor was more effective at reducing coronary artery plaques - but the results were not statistically significant. That means they could have occurred by chance.

The news sent AstraZeneca stocks tumbling with some financial analysts likening the study to the drug-maker shooting itself in the foot. But what do the results mean for patients on both these drugs?

"It really means nothing," Dr. Howard S. Weintraub, clinical director of NYU's Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease, told CBS News. "These are two excellent drugs."

People expected Crestor to blow away Lipitor based on earlier studies, he said, but the differences between the two drugs are small. The results shouldn't change a doctor's perspective on prescribing either medication, he said.

"Both are great drugs - no generic holds a candle to them," Weintraub said.

Coronary artery disease, caused by plaque buildup in the heart's arteries, is the number one killer of American men and women.

The National Institutes of Health has more on coronary artery disease.

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by baf827 September 4, 2011 3:38 PM EDT: Lipitor is about to go generic; if you don't think PFIZER paid for this study have a bridge to show you.; Reply to this comment


by Nate650 September 2, 2011 7:53 PM EDT: Both of these drugs are more harmful than helpful. The saturated fat/cholesterol theory is flawed; the correlation between high cholesterol and heart disease is actually very weak. In addition, medical professionals are oversimplying the matter by making general statements like "saturated fat is bad" without making a distinction between the saturated fat in a Big Mac and the saturated fat in organic grass-fed beef.

The key to preventing diet-related diseases is to eat only whole unprocessed foods, preferably organic/pasture-raised/grass-fed. Basically, just eat only the foods that existed 200 years ago. Then one does not need to worry about cholesterol levels.

"If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny." -Thomas Jefferson; Reply to this comment