Astra finds new use for its blockbuster

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Crestor has been a big-selling treatment to lower cholesterol for several years. Doctors have been prescribing the drug in vast numbers in the hope of staving off cardiovascular illness in patients.

The company then went on to test if the drug prevented heart attacks in other types of vulnerable people. One of the groups tested was people with high levels of a protein known as CRP.

"Elevated CRP" patients, even with normal or low levels of cholesterol, have been found to be more vulnerable to heart attacks. Tests on such people worldwide, it emerged today, have shown "unequivocal evidence" of a reduction in heart attacks and deaths compared to subjects given a placebo.

As a result, the trial has been suspended early by the Independent Data Monitoring Board while AstraZeneca starts the process of getting Crestor on doctor's prescription sheets. A spokesman said this would take some time as there was still large swathes of data to process from the tests.