New Data Shows Statins May Help Hispanics With High Cholesterol 

By: Rick Young

While statin medications have helped millions of patients lower their cholesterol levels, until now, little has been known about how Hispanic patients respond to statin therapy. This is because this group is typically underrepresented in clinical trials.

One study, called STARSHIP (STudy Assessing Rosuvastatin in HIspanic Population), presented at the National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA) annual meeting, is the first-ever large-scale, prospective trial exclusively designed to compare the effects of statins in Hispanic patients.

STARSHIP evaluated the efficacy of AstraZeneca's cholesterol lowering statin Crestor (rosuvastatin calcium; CRESTOR®) and atorvastatin in 696 randomized Hispanic patients with elevated cholesterol and moderate to high risk of having a cardiovascular event, and found that Crestor at 10 and 20 mg reduced LDL-C or "bad" cholesterol by 45.2 and 50.0 percent compared to 35.9 and 42.4 percent at similar doses with atorvastatin in Hispanic patients (p

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