JUPITER STUDY: Crestor cuts risk of stroke in half

February 19, 2009 – San Diego, CA – A new analysis from the JUPITER study presented today at the International Stroke Conference (ISC) in San Diego, California describes details of the stroke data according to gender, ethnicity and baseline risk factors. This data adds to the primary analysis of the JUPITER study which demonstrated that CRESTOR® (rosuvastatin calcium) 20mg significantly reduced the risk of stroke by nearly half (48%; p=0.002), compared to placebo among men and women with elevated high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) but low to normal cholesterol levels.
http://www.astrazeneca-us.com/search/?itemId=4875272

“Each year in the U.S. about 795,000 people experience a new or recurrent stroke and about 610,000 of these are first attacks,” said Alex Gold, MD, Executive Director, Clinical Development, CRESTOR U.S. “This analysis of the JUPITER data evaluated rosuvastatin 20 mg across a number of sub groups with notable benefits in higher risk patients, including those older than 70 years, cigarette smokers, hypertensives, those with an elevated Framingham risk score, and those with a high-sensitivity C-reactive protein level at or above 5 mg/L at baseline.”

About JUPITER:
JUPITER (Justification for the Use of statins in Primary prevention: an Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosuvastatin) was a long-term, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, large-scale study of 17,802 patients designed to determine if rosuvastatin 20 mg decreases the risk of heart attack, stroke and other major cardiovascular events in patients with low to normal LDL-C but at increased cardiovascular risk as identified by elevated high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) and age. The majority of patients had at least one other risk factor including hypertension, low HDL-C, family history of premature coronary heart disease (CHD) or smoking. hsCRP is a recognized marker of inflammation which is associated with an increased risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular events.


JUPITER is a part of AstraZeneca’s extensive GALAXY clinical trials program, designed to address important unanswered questions in statin research. Currently, more than 69,000 patients have been recruited from 55 countries worldwide to participate in the GALAXY Program.

About CRESTOR (rosuvastatin calcium):
Studies have previously shown that CRESTOR significantly lowered LDL-C, had a significant effect on raising HDL-C and slowed the progression of atherosclerosis, an underlying cause of cardiovascular disease.



The drug company, AstraZenca, makes a drug called Crestor and also receives royalties from a particular blood test (hsCRP) which detects C-reactive protein (CRP), an indicator of infection.
http://www.sciencebuzz.org/buzz_tags/cardiovascular


AstraZenca funded a study which found that their product, Crestor, when given to patients identified as having infection via their blood test (hsCRP), "slashed the risk (of heart attack or stroke) of those flagged by the test by about half -- even if their cholesterol was normal".

Infection's role in cardiovascular risk
Why people with normal cholesterol levels suffered heart attacks or strokes has been puzzling. In the study,


either 20 milligrams of the statin Crestor or an inert placebo (was given) daily to 17,802 middle-aged and elderly men and women who had what are considered safe cholesterol levels but high CRP -- 2 milligrams per liter of blood or above.
(They)stopped the trial ... after an average follow-up of less than two years, concluding that the benefit was so striking that it would unethical to continue withholding the real drug from those taking the placebo.
Compared with those getting the placebo, those taking Crestor were 54 percent less likely to have a heart attack, 48 percent less to have a stroke, 46 percent less likely to need angioplasty or bypass surgery to open a clogged artery, 44 percent less likely to suffer any of those events and 20 percent less likely to die from any cause, the researchers reported yesterday. WashingtonPost

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/NEJMoa0807646