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.