Pfizer: New users likely to stick to Lipitor

If you want to have your cake and take a pill to stave off the ill effects on cholesterol, Pfizer's Lipitor might be on your plate. It's the best-selling drug in the world [1] for a reason, and a new study by the company itself says you're more likely to stick to your drug regimen if you take Lipitor rather than simvastatin. 

Pfizer looked at over 186,000 patients from one of the largest U.S. managed care claims databases and published its findings in this month's issue of Current Medical Research and Opinion. 

A recent study showed that placebo was just as effective as Lipitor when it came to artery thickening--in fact, thickness was worse for those on Lipitor than for those on placebo. Another study showed that the drug did nothing to reduce mental or physical worsening of symptoms in Alzheimer patients. Pfizer, of course, is poking any holes it can in the negative findings about its billion dollar baby. Lipitor brought in $12.7 billion for the drug maker in 2007 alone.

- read the story [2] at CNN Money
- find out more [3] from Forbes 
- see the study abstract [4]

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Investors cheer Lipitor patent decision [6]