Lipobay Selected For Large UK Study In Diabetics

Bayer's HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor Lipobay (cerivastatin) has beenselected for inclusion in a large-scale UK study which will determine whether lipid-lowering drugs can reduce the risk of heart disease in patients with type II diabetes who have no previous history of cardiovascular illness.

Despite the fact that diabetics have an extremely high risk of going on to develop cardiovascular disease in later life, to date no large-scale studies of lipid-lowering therapy in this setting have been conducted. Seeking to address this, the Lipids in Diabetes Study (LDS) will recruit around 4,000 diabetic patients with dyslipidemia at 21 centers across the UK. Patients who take part in the five-year trial will be randomized to receive one of four treatment arms; cerivastatin alone, fenofibrate alone, the combination of the two, or placebo. As this is a primary prevention study, patients who have existing cardiovascular pathology will be excluded.

People with diabetes often have abnormal lipid ratios rather than high lipid levels, and this may contribute to their two-to-three-fold increased risk of dying from a cardiovascular event compared to non-diabetic subjects, noted LDS coordinator Rury Holman of the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, UK.