Statin patients risk heart attacks taking low doses, study finds

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- People taking cholesterol-lowering drugs, or statins, can suffer preventable heart attacks because they aren't taking their treatment regularly or are taking too low a dose, a study published online Thursday in the European Heart Journal showed.

Statins are used to lower cholesterol levels in people at risk of coronary heart disease.

Researchers from the PHARMO Institute in the Netherlands followed the prescription records of nearly 60,000 Dutch patients for up to 14 years.

They found that the largest reduction in heart attacks needing hospital admission was among patients taking statins continuously for two years at high or intermediate doses.

These patients were also relatively more likely to be using more potent second-generation statins, such as Pfizer Inc.'s (PFE) Lipitor or AstraZeneca PLC's (AZN) Crestor, rather than older statins.

Although doctors can prescribe higher doses of older statins, there are safety limits for the maximum dose.
Ron Herings, one of the authors of the study, said it's preferable to achieve a higher dose by using the newer, highly potent statins.

However, because older statins are cheaper, their use tends to be encouraged by health insurers who have to reimburse the cost of drugs to patients.

"Ideally, to improve the population effectiveness of statin treatment, persistent drug use and the use of new, potent statins, should be encouraged," Herings concluded.

The research was funded by a grant from Nefarma, the Dutch association of pharmaceutical industries, but the study was designed, conducted and analyzed independently.