Sept. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Higher doses of Pfizer Inc.'s cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor may further reduce so-called ``bad'' cholesterol and prevent serious heart or circulatory conditions in some patients, a study published today found.

Patients with coronary heart disease and metabolic syndrome who took 80 milligrams of Lipitor a day had lower low-density lipoprotein, or ``bad'' cholesterol, than patients on 10 milligrams a day in the study. The high-dose group had a 9.5 percent risk of death from coronary heart disease, heart attack, cardiac arrest or stroke, compared to 13 percent for the others.

``This clearly suggests that the higher dose of Lipitor provides substantially greater benefits,'' said Prakash Deedwania, a professor of cardiology at the University of California School of Medicine in San Francisco and lead author of the study.

Pfizer, which funded the study, is seeking to expand the market for Lipitor as the medicine, the world's top-selling drug, faces competition from generics. These include Merck & Co.'s Zocor, the sixth best-selling treatment in the world with revenue of $4.4 billion last year, and AstraZeneca Plc's Crestor, which had sales of $387 million in the first quarter of 2006.

`Epidemic'

A high level of low-density lipoprotein is a risk factor for heart and circulatory diseases. The study enrolled 5,584 patients with coronary heart disease and metabolic syndrome at 256 centers in 14 countries and followed them for about five years.

A diagnosis of metabolic syndrome is generally made in patients with three cardiovascular risk factors, such as insulin resistance, obesity, large waistline, high blood pressure and lipoprotein imbalances. The condition is ``at epidemic proportions throughout the world'' and is directly related to obesity, Deedwania said in a telephone interview.

``The TNT findings suggest that the presence of metabolic syndrome might help to select patients who will best benefit from aggressive lipid-lowering therapy,'' Andre Scheen, a Belgian researcher, wrote in a comment accompanying the study, both published on The Lancet's Web site.

Lipitor is the top-selling drug in the world and generated sales of $12.2 billion in 2005 for Pfizer. Cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and strokes are the leading cause of death and kill about 17 million people a year, according to the World Health Organization.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrea Gerlin in London agerlin@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 5, 2006 05:12 EDT