Cholesterol-Cutting Drugs Raise Diabetes Risk by 9% in Study

Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Pfizer Inc.’s Lipitor, AstraZeneca Plc’s Crestor and rival drugs to lower cholesterol also boost diabetes rates by about 9 percent, according to a study that quantified a complication that doctors only recently discovered.

The drugs, which generated $34 billion in 2008 sales, prevent heart attacks, strokes and death, and their benefits outweigh the diabetes risk, said lead researcher David Preiss, a research fellow at the University of Glasgow. The pills were linked to one additional case of diabetes and prevented five heart attacks and deaths for every 1,000 patients who took them for a year, he said.

The researchers analyzed 13 studies of the medicines known as statins after a 2008 trial from London-based AstraZeneca unexpectedly found patients given Crestor had a 25 percent higher risk of diabetes. The new analysis involving more than 90,000 patients, published in the journal Lancet, shows the actual increase in diabetes is 9 percent, the risk is tied to the entire class of medications and the danger increases with age.

“Even though there is a slight risk more than what we knew before, it’s still a reassuring message,” Preiss said in a telephone interview. “We’re not talking a huge risk at all, and what we don’t want people to do is take this as a sign to stop taking statin therapy.”

Future studies and researchers conducting long-term followup should include blood-sugar reading and diabetes development, the investigators said. Patients and doctors should also be aware of the potential risk and adjust treatment if the drugs’ potential benefits no longer outweigh the risk, they said.

Patients may benefit from blood-sugar monitoring during their regular medical checkups, said Chris Cannon, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, in an editorial that accompanied the study.

“Whilst a new risk of statins has been identified, the risk seems small and far outweighed by the benefits of this life-saving class of drugs,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Michelle Fay Cortez in London at mcortez@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Phil Serafino at pserafino@bloomberg.net