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AstraZeneca's operations in Alderley Park Cheshire

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8:07 am, February 9, 2010
AstraZeneca wins new market for heart disease drug

US regulators have given AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) the go ahead to promote its anti-cholesterol drug Crestor to older men and women.

The drug, which prevents heart disease, can now be prescribed for men at least 50 years old or women at least 60 even if they have healthy cholesterol, the US Food and Drug Administration said.

This opens up a new market because such patients have not usually been given anti-cholesterol drugs.

Crestor, which had global sales of $4.5bn in 2009, will now be prescribed to reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes, bypass operations and artery-clearing procedures in people with healthy cholesterol but high levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and at least one other risk factor.

It follows a study called Jupiter in which AstraZeneca took data from 18,000 patients.

Howard Hutchinson, chief medical officer at AstraZeneca, which employs nearly 7,000 people at Macclesfield and Alderley Park in Cheshire, said: "Not only is this approval a significant milestone for AstraZeneca, but it is also important for the patients who could now benefit from Crestor therapy under this approved indication. This new indication adds to the significant body of evidence physicians use to evaluate Crestor as a treatment option."

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