Taking Statins To The Next Level

摘要

You might think that everyone who should be on cholesterol-lowering drugs already is. At the moment 20 million Americans swallow the likes of Lipitor, Zocor and Crestor. But a forthcoming study, funded by Crestor maker AstraZeneca, suggests that these drugs, known as statins, can work against heartrndisease in some people with low cholesterol levels. If so, another 12 million people should be taking the drugs. If they do sign up, Crestor might double its sales to $6.8 billion by 2012.rnThe original purpose of statin drugs was to keeprngunky cholesterol from building up. But some scientists argue they also lower artery inflammation, which can cause cholesterol plaque to burst into heart-attack-causing clots. The Astra study, called Jupiter, tested the theoryrnthat Crestor combats this swelling in 18,000 people whose blood tests showed low levels of bad cholesterol (average: 104 milligrams per deciliter) but high levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), which could indicate that the arteries are inflamed.