Anti-cholesterol drugs underused, says study

WASHINGTON - Cholesterol-lowering statin drugs may be the most prescribed medicines in the world, but researchers said more patients at high risk of developing heart disease could be taking the drugs.

Heart disease is the number one killer in the United States and much of the industrialised world and it is often caused by high cholesterol.

Statins lower cholesterol naturally produced by the liver.

Dr Jun Ma, of Stanford University in California, studied two national databases that included details of outpatient visits to hospitals and doctors' offices between 1992 and 2002, and the types of drugs used.

"You have to look at drug therapy on a case-by-case basis. We have many situations where drugs are misused or overused," said Ma, who led the study. "In this particular case, although we did observe some inappropriate use of statins in low-risk patients, the predominant problem appears to be underuse in higher-risk patients."

According to the study, published in the Public Library of Science-Medicine, a free internet-based medical journal, "Statin use grew from 47 per cent of all lipid-lowering medications in 1992 to 87 per cent in 2002, with atorvastatin being the leading medication in 2002."

Atorvastatin, sold by Pfizer under the brand name Lipitor, is the world's biggest-selling prescription medicine with sales of US$10 billion ($14.23 billion) a year.

- REUTERS