Doctors claim statins cause memory loss

World drug giant Pfizer has defended its drug Lipitor (atorvastatin) against a number of anecdotal claims that statins cause memory loss in certain patients. An article in the Wall Street Journal cites personal observations from several US physicians of cognitive defecits in women that disappeared shortly after they stopped using the cholesterol-lowering agents.

With revenues of $12.6 billion last year, Lipitor is the most popular drug in this lucrative class, which also includes Novartis' Lescol (fluvastatin), Bristol-Myers Squibb's Pravachol (pravastatin), AstraZeneca's Crestor (rosuvastatin) and Merck & Co's Zocor (simvastatin), as well as Vytorin (ezetimibe and simvastatin) and Zetia (ezetimibe), which the firm co-markets with Schering-Plough. They are used by over 25 million people worldwide to reduce chances of heart attack and stroke.

Orli Etingin, of the New York Presbyterian Hospital, told the WSJ that she had seen "maybe two dozen patients" with mental impairments on Lipitor and called for more studies of its cognitive effects, especially in women. In a statement, Pfizer noted that the safety and efficacy of its drug has been shown in over 145 patient years of experience and that this data does not establish a causal link with memory loss.