AstraZeneca Presents New Data for CRESTOR(R) in African-American Patients with High Cholesterol at American Heart Association An

AstraZeneca Presents New Data for CRESTOR(R) in African-American
Patients with High Cholesterol at American Heart Association Annual Meeting
- First-ever Large-scale, Prospective Study in African Americans with High
Cholesterol Levels Demonstrates CRESTOR Helped Patients Achieve Cholesterol
Goals - 


NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 9  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- New data presented today at the
American Heart Association's Annual Scientific Sessions showed that
AstraZeneca's CRESTOR(R) (rosuvastatin calcium) at 10 and 20 mg reduced LDL-C
or "bad" cholesterol by 37 and 46 percent, compared to 32 and 39 percent at
similar doses with atorvastatin in African-American patients.  CRESTOR also
brought more patients in this study to National Cholesterol Education Program
Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP III) LDL-C goals than atorvastatin at
milligram-equivalent doses of 10 and 20 mg.  ARIES (African American
Rosuvastatin Investigation of Efficacy and Safety) is the first-ever
large-scale, prospective trial exclusively designed to compare the effects of
statins in African-American patients, who have generally been underrepresented
in clinical trials.

"As an African American physician who treats a large number of African-American
patients, the ARIES trial represents an opportunity to demonstrate the efficacy
and safety of statins in this high-risk, undertreated and underserved
population," said Dr. Keith C. Ferdinand, clinical cardiologist and medical
director of Heartbeats Life Center and the lead investigator for ARIES. "ARIES
is the first trial to demonstrate superiority in lowering LDL-cholesterol (bad
cholesterol) in this population using rosuvastatin (CRESTOR) compared to
atorvastatin, comparing equal doses of each."

ARIES is a six-week, randomized, controlled, open-label, multi-center trial
designed to evaluate the efficacy of CRESTOR and atorvastatin in African
Americans with elevated cholesterol.  After a six-week dietary lead-in, 774
African-American adults with hypercholesterolemia were randomized to one of
four open-label treatments for six weeks: CRESTOR 10 or 20 mg or atorvastatin
10 or 20 mg.  Results showed CRESTOR 10 and 20 mg reduced LDL-C by 37 and 46
percent respectively compared with 32 and 39 percent for atorvastatin at the
same dosages (p