JUPITER Rosuvastatin Study Upended: Use of Statins in Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease Does Not Reduce All-cause Mortality

© 2010 Peter Free

 

30 June 2010

 

Fighting Big Pharma's greed-based distortion of medical science

The Annals of Internal Medicine published two articles on 28 June 2010 that cast serious doubt on routine use of statins (HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors) in primary care for patients who do not have a clinical history of coronary heart disease.

Both articles take aim at the Rosuvastatin-JUPITER study, which the drug manufacturer probably hoped would support the routine prescription of rosuvastatin in primary care.

Citations

Kausik K. Ray et al., Statins and All-Cause Mortality in High Risk Primary-Prevention: A Meta-analysis of 11 Randomized Controlled Trials Involving 69,229 Patients, Annals of Internal Medicine 170(12): 1024-1031 (28 June 2010).

Michel D. Lorgeril et al., Cholesterol Lowering, Cardiovascular Diseases, and the Rosuvastatin-JUPITER Controversy: A Critical Reappraisal, Annals of Internal Medicine 170(12): 1032-1036 (28 June 2010).

Pertinent quotations from the Annals of Internal Medicine articles

From Kausik K. Ray:

Our objective was to reliably determine if statin therapy reduces all-cause mortality among intermediate to high-risk individuals without a history of CVD [cardiovascular disease]. (page 1024)

In conclusion, based on aggregate data on 65 229 men and women from 11 studies yielding approximately 244 000 person years of follow-up and 2793 deaths, we observed that statin therapy for an average period of 3.7 years had no benefit on all-cause mortality in a high-risk primary prevention population.  (page 1030)

From Michel D. Lorgeril's abstract of his group's review of the JUPITER trial:

Careful review of both results and methods used in the [Rosuvastain-JUPITER] trial and comparison with expected data.

The results of the [JUPITER] trial do not support the use of statin treatment for primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases and raise troubling questions concerning the role of commercial sponsors.