AstraZeneca announced that Crestor (rosuvastatin), statin indicated for the treatment of dislipidaemia, has reached the significant milestone of 10 million prescriptions worldwide.

Crestor is now approved in 64 countries worldwide and is taken by more than three million patients to reduce their LDL-C. People with raised levels of LDL-C are predisposed to cardiovascular disease, which kills over 17 million people worldwide each year, the company said in a release.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has updated its Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS) database, following submission of the Periodic Safety Update Report (PSUR) by AstraZeneca. This database continues to show that the safety profile of Crestor remains in line with that of other marketed statins.

Studies have shown that Crestor lowers LDL-C significantly more than the same and some higher doses of other commonly used statins. Moreover, Crestor 10mg gets significantly more patients to their LDL-C goal than the most commonly prescribed doses of other widely used statins - thereby avoiding the need to titrate doses.

Commenting on the milestone, Dr Gunnar Olsson, head of Cardiovascular, AstraZeneca, said, " It is the goal of all physicians to treat their patients according to defined goals. Crestor offers the opportunity to do just that: using the usual start dose of 10mg brings 8 out of 10 patients to their LDL-C goal. With the number of patients on CRESTOR increasing at the rate we've seen, it is clear physicians are recognising these benefits."