Wider use of cholesterol-lowering drugs urged for European citizens

In the history of pharmaceuticals, drugs that alter cholesterol levels have made more sales than any others. Lipitor (atorvastatin), for example, made $12.2 billion for drugs giant Pfizer in the last year alone. Yet two recent events show the market for statins and other cholesterol-modifying drugs, in Europe especially, is far from saturation point. There is pressure from health care policy advisers, cardiologists and lipid experts alike, for a renewed onslaught on cholesterol in Europe, and for therapeutic agents that tackle lipids from different perspectives so as to fill a treatment gap left by statins.

"Europe has always has been world leader in vascular risk and still is today," commented Jim Shepherd, a professor at Glasgow University, Scotland, during a meeting in Paris, France. "Whereas the world's highest cholesterol levels and cardiovascular mortality were once in Scotland, now they are in the countries of Eastern Europe," he noted.

"Unsustainable" cost burden