In a study published in Circulation, the incidence of adverse events with rosuvastatin (Crestor) was 2 times higher than simvastatin (Zocor), and 6.8 times higher than atorvastatin (Lipitor).
In the big scheme of things, this translates to 6 per million deaths with Crestor, 3 per million for Zocor, and 2 per million for Lipitor. Not that common.
Still, do you really want to use a drug that has a higher mortality than the medications in the same group? Probably not.
Suddenly, Consumer Reports "Best Buy Drug" reviews seem a bit more scientific. Lipitor was their top choice for those who needed to reduce the LDL cholesterol by more than 40%.
Source:
Reuters, Circulation - 05/05
what about patients who do better on 10mg of crestor than 40 t0 80mg of lipitor. Does the relative risk go down.We need practical real life studies,not retrospective poorly designed studies. Also, few of the national media and especially " experts" like Dr Wolfe ,point out that severe adverse events were 1/35,000 patients,and deaths were extremely rare as you point out.
ReplyDeleteWe need to see the original data which will be published in Circulation on May 30. As of now, only the abstract is available but certainly the preliminary results do not look good for Crestor.
ReplyDeleteWe will see if the reported rate of adverse events occured at the low or high dose of Crestor. And also if the comparison with the other statins was dose-for-dose.