Not all cholesterol-lowering medications are the same. As you and your doctor work to decide what option may be best for you, consider how LIPITOR compares:
LIPITOR is the #1 prescribed branded cholesterol-lowering medication in the world*
Unlike some other cholesterol-lowering medications, LIPITOR is FDA-approved to significantly reduce the risk of:
if you have several common risk factors, including high blood pressure, low HDL ("good" cholesterol), family history of early heart disease, smoking, and age.
LIPITOR is one of the most widely studied medicines in the world—with more than 17 years of research.
LIPITOR has an established safety record.
Only LIPITOR is LIPITOR
Not every brand-name medication has an approved generic form. While there are generic
versions of other cholesterol medications, there is no approved generic form of
LIPITOR currently available.
In clinical studies, LIPITOR lowered bad cholesterol significantly more than generic Zocor (simvastatin).§||
Zocor is a registered trademark of Merck & Co, Inc.
*IMS Health. IMS National Prescription Audit Plus™.
March 2008.
†Total Patient Tracker, Verispan, LLC, April 2008.
‡Data on file. Pfizer Inc, New York, NY.
§The CURVES study was conducted in 1997 to evaluate the comparative
effectiveness of varying doses of LIPITOR with equivalent dose strengths of Zocor®
(simvastatin), Pravachol® (pravastatin), and lovastatin over 8 weeks.
The CURVES study involved 534 patients and demonstrated that LIPITOR at 10, 20,
and 40 mg produced significantly greater reductions in LDL cholesterol than the
milligram-equivalent of Zocor®, Pravachol®, and lovastatin.
||The CHALLENGE study was conducted to evaluate the comparative efficacy
and safety of LIPITOR at 10 mg vs Zocor (simvastatin) at 20 mg and of LIPITOR at
80 mg vs Zocor at 80 mg over 6 weeks. The CHALLENGE study involved 1732 patients
with high cholesterol and demonstrated that LIPITOR produced significantly greater
reductions in LDL cholesterol than Zocor (simvastatin).