High-dose Lipitor cuts CV risk 27% in bypass patients

World drug giant Pfizer's Lipitor (atorvastatin calcium) 80mg significantly reduced the risk of major cardiovascular events, including heart attack and stroke, by 27% in patients with heart disease who had previous coronary bypass surgery compared with subjects taking the 10mg dose of the drug. This analysis, designed and completed following the closure of the five-year Treating to New Targets study, was published in a recent issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Intensive Lipitor therapy also provided a significant 30% reduction in the need for either repeat coronary bypass surgery or angioplasty, another type of interventional heart surgery, compared with Lipitor 10mg, the firm noted.

Each year in the USA, approximately 470,000 bypass surgeries are performed on 270,000 people. Patients in the TNT study who had undergone previous bypass surgery had a much higher likelihood of cardiovascular events than those who did not. This especially high-risk population tends to be under-treated with lipid-lowering therapy, Pfizer stated.