According to the results of a new analysis presented recently at the World Congress of Cardiology in Barcelona, Spain, Pfizer's Lipitor® (atorvastatin calcium) 80mg dose is found more effective in significantly lowering the heart attack recurrences in patients who already had a heart attack as compared to Simvastatin 20-40mg dose.
According to Dr. Terje Pedersen, head of the Centre for Preventive Medicine at Ulleval University Hospital (Oslo, Norway) and the lead investigator for Pfizer-sponsored IDEAL (Incremental Decrease in Endpoints Through Aggressive Lipid Lowering):
"Patients who have experienced a recent heart attack are at greater risk for experiencing life-threatening, recurrent events. These data suggest the benefit of intensive treatment with Lipitor 80mg in very high-risk heart attack patients. Lipitor 80mg was also well-tolerated in these patients."
Analysis of data from IDEAL revealed that: compared to patients on simvastatin 20-40 mg dosage, patients on the Lipitor 80 mg dosage had a 46% reduction in the risk of experiencing another heart attack, and a 34% reduction in the risk of experiencing major coronary events (heart attack, cardiac death and cardiac arrest included.
Though the safety profiles on both groups were similar, Lipitor 80mg also significantly reduced the risk of death, stroke, unstable angina and revascularization combined by 18% compared to simvastatin 20-40mg.
Find more details from the Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) press release.
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