Patients more likely to stay on Pfizer's Lipitor than simvastatin, says managed care database study

World drug giant Pfizer says that new statin users who took Lipitor (atorvastatin calcium) were significantly more likely to stay on their medication compared to those prescribed simvastatin, according to an observational study of more than 186,000 patients in one of the largest US managed-care claims databases.

Published in the July issue of Current Medical Research and Opinion, the results show that, of patients without prior cardiovascular events, those treated with Lipitor were a significant 15% less likely to discontinue therapy in the first year than people given simvastatin. Those with at least one prior CV event treated with Lipitor were a significant 22% less likely to discontinue therapy than patients on simvastatin. Developed by US drug major Merck & Co and sold as Zocor, the comparator statin has seen widespread use since it lost patent protection in 2006.

A sub-analysis examined the persistence rates of patients aged 65 years and older, who are at a higher risk for CV events and have lower persistence rates than younger patients. In this retrospective database analysis, persistence rates were defined as the number of days a patient remained on treatment in the first year following medication start date. Overall, persistence was worse in elderly patients than in younger ones for both statins, but the relative difference between Lipitor and simvastatin users was similar to that of the overall patient population.