Pfizer says Lipitor improves kidney function in heart disease patients

By Elaine Rigoli

Tampa, Fla., March 13 - Patients with coronary heart disease and elevated cholesterol who took Pfizer, Inc's cholesterol-lowering medicine Lipitor experienced improved kidney function.

The data, from an analysis of nearly 8,000 patients from the Treating to New Targets (TNT) trial, showed that patients taking the highest dose of Lipitor (80 mg) experienced significantly greater improvements in kidney function than patients taking the lowest dose - 50% of high-dose patients who had kidney dysfunction had normal kidney function at the end of the study, according to a company news release.

An estimated 20 million Americans suffer from chronic kidney disease, and people with high LDL cholesterol, or "bad" cholesterol, are often at an increased risk of developing kidney dysfunction.

Safety of Lipitor 80 mg in the patients in this analysis was similar to that reported for the overall TNT population, with no unexpected safety concerns identified and similar incidences of adverse events between the treatment groups, the release said.

"We anticipated that atorvastatin might provide a protective effect and slow the typical decline in kidney function in this patient population, but we didn't expect to see this level of improvement," James Shepherd, TNT steering committee member and clinical academic consultant at the University of Glasgow Medical School, said in a statement.

Pfizer is a global pharmaceutical company based in New York.

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