Should Crestor & Statins Become Mass Market?
AstraZeneca plc (NYSE: AZN) is seeing a possible serious win this morning on good news from its Crestor presentation showing that it cuts heart attack and stroke risks even in healthy adults.
The company showed sata from its JUPITER study (Justification for the Use of statins in Primary prevention: an Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosuvast) demonstrated that CRESTOR® 20 mg significantly reduced major cardiovascular (CV) events by a dramatic 44% compared to placebo among men and women with elevated hsCRP but low to normal cholesterol levels. CV events were defined in the study as the combined risk of myocardial infarction, stroke, arterial revascularization, hospitalization for unstable angina, or death from CV causes.
Some other results were huge as well. The combined risk of heart attack, stroke or CV death was reduced by nearly half (47%), risk of heart attack was cut by more than half (54%), risk of stroke was cut by nearly half (48%), and total mortality was significantly reduced by 20%. These results were accompanied by a median LDL-C reduction of 50% resulting in an on-treatment median LDL-C of 55 mg/dL.
This data is being presented at American Heart Association Scientific Sessions and were also published online by the New England Journal of Medicine.
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BioHealth & Medical Analyst Calls (AZN, NVS, NVO, CRL, IVGN, APPY, TWTI)
BNP Paribas overseas has lowered ratings of AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) to Underperform from Neutral; and raised Novartis (NYSE: NVS) to Neutral from Underperform.
Goldman Sachs has raised Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO) to Buy from Neutral; Charles River Laboratories (NYSE: CRL) downgraded to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
JPMorgan has raised its rating on Invitrogen (NASDAQ: IVGN) to Overweight from Neutral.
Lazard Capital Markets started coverage of Aspenbio (NASDAQ: APPY) with a “Buy” rating.
R.W.Baird Downgraded Third Wave Technologies (NASDAQ: TWTI) to Neutral from Outperform.
Jon Ogg
June 24, 2008