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Mike Mitka

JAMA. 2003;290:2243-2245.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Vienna, Austria—Last year, findings from the Heart Protection Study, a 20 500-patient clinical trial in the United Kingdom, showed that adding a statin (simvastatin) to existing treatment regimens for high-risk patients substantially reduced the rates of heart attack and stroke, even among those with cholesterol levels considered to be normal or low (Lancet. 2002;360:7-22). The researchers estimated that implementing the study's major finding—that statins should be prescribed for patients based on risk, not just cholesterol level—would more than triple the number of individuals benefiting from the drugs. Principal investigator Rory Collins, MD, reportedly predicted that statins would eventually become "the new aspirin."

Like aspirin, statins have the potential to reduce heart attack and stroke. But unlike aspirin, which costs pennies per day, statins carry a heftier price tag—about $2 to $3 a day in the United States down to about $1 a day for generics entering some . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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