Almirall, the international pharmaceutical company based in Spain, has signed a co-marketing agreement with Pfizer by which Pfizer grants Almirall commercialisation rights in Spain of a new medicine that combines amlodipine and atorvastatin under the trademark Astucor.

The medicine will also be marketed in Spain by Pfizer under the trademark Caduet. Product launch in Spain is anticipated for the first quarter of 2009. Pfizer has been commercialising this combination since 2004 in the United States, France, Austria, Switzerland and Turkey.

This important agreement enables Almirall to further strengthen its product portfolio in the cardiovascular area.

Astucor consists of an advanced strategy for cardiovascular protection in patients with hypertension who have associated cardiovascular risk factors (such as smoking, age, diabetes and others). Its single tablet provides the benefits of amlodipine and atorvastatin and reduces the risk of non-fatal myocardial infarction and fatal coronary disease by 53 per cent in hypertense patients at high cardiovascular risk.

The new combination is supported by the efficacy and safety of amlodipine, which is one of the highest selling antihypertensive agents worldwide.

The therapy based on the administration of Astucor, which is a combination of amlodipine and atorvastatin in a single tablet, is an effective treatment in reducing cardiovascular risk, not only by monitoring artery tension figures in hypertense patients with three or more risk factors and normal to slightly high cholesterol levels, but also reducing the risk of cardiovascular episodes such as death by cardiovascular origin or myocardial infarction.

These were the results of the Ascot Study (Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial), carried out in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Nordic Countries with 19,257 patients who were monitored over five years. The study initially compared two antihypertensive treatments and the effect of adding atorvastatin compared to placebo in a subgroup of 10,305 patients with normal or slightly high cholesterol levels (ASCOT 2x2).

The ASCOT 2x2 study showed that adding 10mg of atorvastatin to an antihypertensive treatment based on amlodipine reduces by 53% the risk of suffering a non-fatal myocardial infarction or fatal coronary disease and by 23% the risk of total cardiovascular and revascularisation episodes.

"We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Pfizer as by including Astucor in our product portfolio we can expand our cardiovascular portfolio in the hypertension field. It is also a notable commitment to the future as it is the first time a medicine that combines two different therapeutic groups indicated for the treatment of cardiovascular risk in hypertense patients is to be launched on the Spanish market", indicated Jorge Gallardo, chairman - chief executive officer of Almirall.

Almirall, an international pharmaceutical company based on innovation and committed to health, headquartered in Barcelona, Spain, researches, develops, manufactures and commercialises its own R&D and licensed drugs with the aim of improving people's health and wellbeing.