Pfizer Inc. (PFE), AstraZeneca plc (ADR) (AZN): Statin Users May Have a Reason to Rejoice After This Data

A surprising result
The study, which involved all newly diagnosed breast cancer patients in Finland between 1995 and 2003 (31,236 cases), showed that only statin use (in the patients who used them) was associated with a decreased breast cancer mortality compared with bile acid resins and fibrates, which actually delivered an increase in overall mortality. Age, tumor, and treatment characteristics throughout these studies were consistent, meaning there was little chance that the data would be skewed by chance. The ultimate conclusion here is that long-term statin use could actually be beneficial to helping prevent the progression of breast cancer, and that further studies into the matter were warranted.

This is potentially great news for statin makers who are counting on the long-term use of these drugs to grow profits and fund additional research. Even though Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)’s Lipitor has gobe off patent, we’ve seen quite a bit of innovation within this field over the past couple of years.

In March, the Food and Drug Administration approved Liptruzet, which is a combination of generic Lipitor and Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)‘s cholesterol absorption inhibitor, Zetia. In trials, this drug combo lowered LDL-cholesterol by 53% to 61% depending on the dose, as my Foolish colleague Brian Orelli noted. By comparison, Lipitor by itself delivered LDL reductions of 37% to 54%, with Zetia alone reducing LDL-cholesterol by just 20%. These results are actually pretty similar to that of Vytorin (Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)’s combination drug of Zocor and Zetia), which reduced LDL-cholesterol by 45% to 60%, depending on the dosage, when it was approved by the FDA. But as Brian also pointed out, it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison.

Innovation in this sector should also be spurred on by the need for AstraZeneca plc (ADR) (NYSE:AZN) to find a revenue replacement for its blockbuster statin Crestor, which netted the company $6.25 billion in sales last year. With the bulk of its patents on Crestor set to expire in 2016, AstraZeneca plc (ADR) (NYSE:AZN) may try its hand at combining its drug with a competitor’s LDL-lowering drug in an effort to better compete against Liptruzet or Vytorin, which it’s losing ground to at the moment.

The article Statin Users May Have a Reason to Rejoice After This Data originally appeared on Fool.com is written by Sean Williams.

Fool contributor Sean Williams has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name TMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle @TMFUltraLong.

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