| Pfizer's Lipitor halves stroke risk in diabetics
By Ben Hirschler, European Pharmaceuticals Correspondent
LONDON (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc.'s cholesterol fighter Lipitor halved
the risk of stroke in patients with diabetes in a study and cut
cardiovascular events, including heart attacks, by more than a third,
researchers said on Sunday.
The clear benefits mean doctors should now consider giving so-called
statin drugs routinely to patients with diabetes, according to investigators
involved with the British clinical trial.
That could open up a huge new market for the cholesterol-lowering
drugs -- already the world's top-selling medicines -- and Lipitor
in particular, which has annual sales of $10 billion.
"We need to shift thinking toward a presumption that most
people with type II diabetes are likely to receive very substantial
benefit," Helen Colhoun, professor of genetic epidemiology
at University College Dublin, told Reuters.
Type 2 diabetes, which typically occurs in adulthood and is closely
linked with obesity, is one of the world's fastest growing health
problems.
It is closely related to cardiovascular disease, with two out of
three sufferers dying from heart disease and stroke. Yet most of
the world's diabetics, estimated by the International Diabetes Federation
to number 194 million, are not currently given statins.
That may be about to change.
GROWING EVIDENCE
The findings from the Lipitor study, which were presented at the
annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association in Orlando,
add to the growing body of evidence favoring statins in the treatment
of diabetes.
A similar study last year on Merck & Co Inc's rival statin
Zocor showed it cut the risk of heart attack and stroke by a third.
And it was already clear last June that Lipitor was having a significant
impact when the British trial was halted two years early to allow
patients on placebo to take the drug.
Now the full results of the study -- sponsored by British charity
Diabetes UK, Britain's Department of Health and Pfizer UK -- are
being made available.
They show that a 10 mg dose of Lipitor, known generically as atorvastatin,
reduced cardiovascular events by 37 percent in diabetics with no
previous history of cardiovascular disease, while the incidence
of stroke fell by 48 percent.
Current best practice is to use statins in diabetics only when
they have elevated cholesterol levels or established heart disease.
But researchers say the British trial demonstrates that a much
wider group of patients would actually benefit and statins could
become a third leg of a strategy that already includes treatment
for blood sugar levels and high blood pressure.
"We are hoping this will provide the necessary evidence base
for policy to shift," said Colhoun.
"The challenge is really whether there is anybody with type
2 diabetes at sufficiently low risk of heart disease not to warrant
this treatment," she added.
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