Thursday, November 19, 2009

AHA News - generic simvastatin rocks!

Cholesterol pills Vytorin from Merck & Co. and Lipitor from Pfizer Inc. worked no better than simvastatin, a cheaper generic medicine, at keeping patients out of the hospital for heart attacks or stroke, a study found.

Researchers with UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s pharmacy benefits unit Prescription Solutions analyzed medical claims of 30,000 patients taking one of the three drugs. They found no difference in rates of heart attacks or stroke among the three groups, according to data presented today at the American Heart Association meeting in Orlando, Florida.

The analysis suggests that heart patients may fare just as well by taking the least-expensive cholesterol-lowering pill. Simvastatin costs 84 cents for a 40 milligram dose, compared with $3.91 for the same dosage of Lipitor and $3.74 for Vytorin. A study last year showed that Vytorin worked no better than simvastatin at reopening arteries and a separate study reported this week found that Abbott Laboratories’ Niaspan may be superior to Vytorin in certain patients.

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