AstraZeneca today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved CRESTOR (rosuvastatin calcium) to reduce the risk of stroke, myocardial infarction (heart attack) and arterial revascularization procedures in individuals without clinically evident coronary heart disease but with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) based on age (men =50 and women =60), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) = 2 mg/L, and the presence of at least one additional CVD risk factor, such as hypertension, low HDL-C, smoking, or a family history of premature coronary heart disease. The FDA approval was based on data from the landmark JUPITER (Justification for the Use of statins in Primary prevention: an Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosuvastatin) study which evaluated the impact of CRESTOR 20 mg on reducing major cardiovascular (CV) events in a previously unstudied population. In JUPITER, CRESTOR significantly reduced the relative risk of heart attack by 54% (p<0.001), stroke by 48% (p=0.002), and arterial revascularization by 46% (p<0.001) vs placebo. “Not only is this approval a significant milestone for AstraZeneca, but it is also important for the patients who could now benefit from CRESTOR therapy under this approved indication,” said Howard Hutchinson, MD, Chief Medical Officer, AstraZeneca. “This new indication adds to the significant body of evidence physicians use to evaluate CRESTOR as a treatment option." About JUPITER: In the JUPITER study, the effect of CRESTOR (rosuvastatin calcium) on the occurrence of major cardiovascular (CV) disease events was assessed in 17,802 men (=50 years) and women (=60 years) who had no clinically evident cardiovascular disease, LDL-C levels <130 mg/dL (3.3 mmol/l) and hs-CRP levels =2 mg/L. The study population had an estimated baseline coronary heart disease risk of 11.6% over 10 years based on the Framingham risk criteria and included a high percentage of patients with additional risk factors such as hypertension (58%), low HDL-C levels (23%), cigarette smoking (16%), or a family history of premature CHD (12%). Study participants had a median baseline LDL-C of 108 mg/dL and hsCRP of 4.3 mg/L. Study participants were randomly assigned to placebo (n=8901) or rosuvastatin 20 mg once daily (n=8901) and were followed for a mean duration of 2 years. The JUPITER study was stopped early by the Data Safety Monitoring Board due to meeting predefined stopping rules for efficacy in rosuvastatin-treated subjects. In a post-hoc subgroup analysis of JUPITER subjects (n=1405; rosuvastatin=725, placebo=680) with a hsCRP =2 mg/L and no other traditional risk factors (smoking, BP= 140/90 or taking hypertensives, low HDL-C) other than age, after adjustment for high HDL-C, there was no significant treatment benefit with rosuvastatin treatment. Results from JUPITER were originally presented in November 2008 at the American Heart Association’s Annual Scientific Sessions, and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
