LONDON (Dow Jones)--AstraZeneca PLC's (AZN) Crestor and Pfizer Inc.'s (PFE) Lipitor cholesterol drugs safely reduced artery-clogging plaque in heart patients when taken at high doses during a clinical trial, according to data presented Tuesday.
But the results of the two-year SATURN study, released at the American Heart Association scientific meeting in Orlando, Fla., showed Crestor outperforming Lipitor by some measures.
"These results are good news for patients with cardiovascular disease and provide further support of what we already know about Crestor," said Howard Hutchinson, AstraZeneca's chief medical officer.
"Crestor consistently and significantly lowers ("bad") LDL-C, increases ("good") HDL-C and helps patients get to target LDL-C of less than 70 milligrams per deciliter. In addition, SATURN once again shows us that Crestor helps to reduce plaque build-up in the arteries," Hutchinson said.
Crestor is AstraZeneca's best-selling product. But its prospects are clouded by the coming arrival of a generic version of Lipitor, the world's No. 1 selling drug.
The SATURN trials had been aimed at differentiating AstraZeneca's key product from its chief rival. But the U.K. company had previously said its anti-cholesterol drug failed to demonstrate a statistically significant advantage in the study's primary plaque regression goal.
Still, Panmure analyst Savvas Neophytou Tuesday said the SATURN result "represents a good outcome for Crestor and re-enforces the drug's position as "best in class."
"We knew that the primary end-point of the trial was missed, but this trial was never intended to be a 'regulatory' trial that would have triggered a change in the labeling of Crestor to illustrate its advantages over Lipitor," he said.
"At best SATURN was an old-fashioned 'marketing' trial in a world of changing 'detailing' of drugs, which probably does not allow AstraZeneca to directly market this finding. Make no mistake. In our view most high prescribing physicians and specialists will know the outcome of this trial," he said in a note to investors.
-By Sten Stovall, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 207 842 9292; sten.stovall@dowjones.com
But the results of the two-year SATURN study, released at the American Heart Association scientific meeting in Orlando, Fla., showed Crestor outperforming Lipitor by some measures.
"These results are good news for patients with cardiovascular disease and provide further support of what we already know about Crestor," said Howard Hutchinson, AstraZeneca's chief medical officer.
"Crestor consistently and significantly lowers ("bad") LDL-C, increases ("good") HDL-C and helps patients get to target LDL-C of less than 70 milligrams per deciliter. In addition, SATURN once again shows us that Crestor helps to reduce plaque build-up in the arteries," Hutchinson said.
Crestor is AstraZeneca's best-selling product. But its prospects are clouded by the coming arrival of a generic version of Lipitor, the world's No. 1 selling drug.
The SATURN trials had been aimed at differentiating AstraZeneca's key product from its chief rival. But the U.K. company had previously said its anti-cholesterol drug failed to demonstrate a statistically significant advantage in the study's primary plaque regression goal.
Still, Panmure analyst Savvas Neophytou Tuesday said the SATURN result "represents a good outcome for Crestor and re-enforces the drug's position as "best in class."
"We knew that the primary end-point of the trial was missed, but this trial was never intended to be a 'regulatory' trial that would have triggered a change in the labeling of Crestor to illustrate its advantages over Lipitor," he said.
"At best SATURN was an old-fashioned 'marketing' trial in a world of changing 'detailing' of drugs, which probably does not allow AstraZeneca to directly market this finding. Make no mistake. In our view most high prescribing physicians and specialists will know the outcome of this trial," he said in a note to investors.
-By Sten Stovall, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 207 842 9292; sten.stovall@dowjones.com
