Mixed results for high-dose Lipitor vs. regular-dose Zocor

According to the recent research on efforts to aggressively treat heart conditions, high doses of the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor were no better at preventing recurrent heart attacks and heart-related deaths than regular doses of the competing drug Zocor. The research, conducted by Lipitor's maker Pfizer Inc., was prepared for presentation Tuesday at an American Heart Association meeting in Dallas. It also appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association. To help heart patients avoid cardiovascular problems, many cardiologists recommend aggressively reducing the bad kind of cholesterol levels. Pfizer tried that with a much higher dose of its statin drug, Lipitor. Lipitor patients appeared to get on better when the investigators grouped together any cardiovascular problem including strokes and heart surgery, results that echo findings in previous study on aggressively reducing cholesterol. 8,888 participants of the study were mostly male Scandinavians aged 61 on average who had experienced heart attacks, and were given either a high dose of Lipitor or a standard dose of Merck's Zocor. Unfortunately, the scientists didn't find the main difference they were searching for - fewer "major coronary events" in the Lipitor group during an average follow-up of almost five years. That category lumped together cardiovascular deaths, nonfatal heart attacks and nonfatal cardiac arrest. But the difference was not significant: 463 in the Zocor patients and 411 in the Lipitor patients. During the research different doses of the competing drugs were used, so the results can't be seen as a direct comparison.