This was a surprise. It is being suggested that Lipitor may not be of benefit to women. Lipitor (atorvastatin) has been, and may still be, the best selling drug in the world.

Lipitor is one of a class of drugs called statins. These drugs are cholesterol lowering drugs. The inhibition of a rate limiting enzyme (HMG CoA reductase) in the synthesis of cholesterol is the main target of all the statins. There are a number of statins, each with slight differences from each other. Lipitor has been aggressively marketed and is sold as being one of the most effective of the statins.

In addition to lowering cholesterol, the statins have been shown to lower the risk of heart attack and stroke.

A new study indicates that the data presented by the manufacturer and in trials does not show a reduced risk of heart attack for women who take Lipitor.

Analysis of the data on Lipitor trials suggest that the decreased risk of heart attack applies to men but not to women.

Apparently, Pfizers advertising does not include the part of the FDA approved labeling that states there is no evidence of a decreased risk for women.

The abstract for the article ends with:

Billions of health-care dollars may be being wasted on statin use by women but the current regulatory regime does not create incentives to prevent such behavior.

Strong words!

Whether this applies to any of the other statins (lovastatin (Mevacor), simvastatin (Zocor), fluvastatin (Lescol), pravastatin (Pravachol), rosuvastatin (Crestor)), is not clear.

This difference between men and women in their response to Lipitor, is consistent with other differences that occur between men and women with regards to their hearts. For instance the symptoms of heart attack are often different between men and women. See a description of women and heart attack.

Women lose out yet again?

photo credit: Gunnar Wrobel

[tags]Lipitor, women, cholesterol, heart attack[/tags]