In the largest clinical study ever conducted with a cholesterol-modifying medication, Zocor® (simvastatin) saved lives and significantly reduced the risk of heart attack and stroke in a broad range of patients at high-risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). These benefits were shown, even in patients with average or below-average cholesterol levels at study entry. In addition, the study demonstrated the life-saving benefits of simvastatin for several distinct, at-risk patient populations, including diabetics, stroke victims, women and the elderly.
The results of the Heart Protection Study will be published in the July 6 issue of the prestigious international medical journal, The Lancet. The results of the 20,536 patient study, conducted by investigators at Oxford University, showed that simvastatin given daily at 40 mg reduced the risk of heart attack and stroke by about one-fourth over the treatment period, which averaged 5.3 years.
These results occurred regardless of the patient’s sex, age or baseline cholesterol level. When adjusted for non-compliance (inadvertent or deliberate failure to take medication) in the trial, investigators estimate that the risk reduction among this broad population is one-third. The 69-hospital U.K. study demonstrated highly significant results at its primary endpoints by reducing the risk of death from all causes by 13 per cent and of death from coronary heart disease (CHD) by 18 per cent. During the study, all treatment groups received standard community-based medical care, which may have included cardiovascular medications such as aspirin, anticoagulants, nitrates, beta-blockers, calcium antagonists, and ACE inhibitors.
The patient’s personal physician could prescribe any of these treatments at any time and as the use of cholesterol modifying medication became more and more accepted in the late 1990’s such medication was also allowed.
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