New “Super Statin” Beats the Other Statins

It’s better at raising HDL-C than any of the previous statins. Patients reach cholesterol targets more often with rosuvastatin (Crestor; AstraZeneca) than with pravastatin or simvastatin, according to findings presented here Monday at the XIV World Congress of Cardiology.

Two comparative studies were undertaken to compare the effectiveness of rosuvastatin with other statins, according to co-investigator Dr. Ian Hamilton-Craig of North Adelaide, who is also member of the International MEDPED Organization steering committee.

The trials compared rosuvastatin at 5 or 10 mg doses against pravastatin 20 mg or simvastatin 20 mg, in nearly 1000 patients with hypercholesterolemia, Dr. Hamilton-Craig told Reuters Health. The goals were to lower LDL-C, raise HDL-C, and get patients to LDL-C goals defined by the revised US National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel (NCEP ATP III).

Dr. Hamilton-Craig said that the data indicate that for high-risk patients taking rosuvastatin 10 mg for 12 weeks, 63.1% achieved the ATP III cholesterol goal, while 22.5% of those taking simvastatin 20 mg achieved the same goal. Among patients taking pravastatin 20 mg, 5.3% reached this therapeutic goal.

For low-risk patients, the goal-achieved rate for the same medication regimes was rosuvastatin 99%, simvastatin 90%, and pravastatin 88.2%. The overall goal-achieved result across all risk categories of patients was rosuvastatin 10 mg 85.8%, simvastatin 20 mg 63.9%, and pravastatin 20 mg 49.2%.

Dr. Hamilton-Craig was "very pleased" with the ability of rosuvastatin to raise HDL-C, and he said the research showed that while pravastatin or simvastatin produced a 6% increase, rosuvastatin produced a 9% increase.

"I call rosuvastatin a superstatin," said Dr. Hamilton-Craig. "It’s better at lowering LDL-C, in low doses, than previous statins. It’s better at raising HDL-C than any of the previous statins. It’s achieved the target recommendations for the ATP III in more people than the other statins."

Rosuvastatin is a "stronger, more powerful statin" that can be used in lower doses, he added. "We can have [fewer] titration steps by increasing doses from one step to the next. Every time we have to bring a patient back to change their medication we potentially lose them…Because we’re starting off with a more effective tablet, we will be better off in our end result treatment. It has the potential for more cost-effective treatment."

Dr. Hamilton-Craig concludes that the rosuvastatin results are "quite amazing–99% of people at medium-risk achieve target on a single-dose tablet–there has never been anything like that published before. It’s a major breakthrough."