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History of Cholesterol Medicine

The history of cholesterol medication is very new. In the late 1960s, Japanese researchers discovered that certain organisms create chemicals that protect them from attack. This research was continued by Merck, the pharmaceutical company, that eventually isolated lovastatin from red rice yeast. Red rice yeast produced the substance as a reaction to a natural predator. It turned out that lovastatin was very good at reducing cholesterol levels in people with high cholesterol. All cholesterol lowering drugs are statin-based drugs.

  1. Lovastatin

    • Lovastatin received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1987. Lovastatin was marketed under the brand name Mevacor. Lovostatin should not be taken with large amounts of grapefruit or grapefruit juice, as grapefruit can increase the presence of lovostatin in the body. Statin drugs can have some of the following side effects: headache; joint and muscle pain; difficult, burning or painful urination; and lower back and side pain. People taking lovostatin, or any statin drug, over time need to have annual liver function tests.

    Simvastatin

    • Simvastatin, sold under the brand name Zocor, was recently involved in a controversy after early testing showed a connection between simvastatin and Lou Gehrig's Disease. As September 2008, FDA testing and research showed no increases in incidents of Lou Gehrig's Disease among patients on simvastatin.

    Atorvastatin

    • Atorvastatin, sold under the brand name Lipitor, lowers blood levels of both cholesterol and triglycerides. Atorvastatin has lower effectiveness in people who are overweight, and prescription of this drug may be part of a weight reduction plan.

    Cerivastatin

    • Cerivastatin, sold under the brand names Baycol and Lipobay, was removed from the market after it was discovered that 52 people had died from kidney failure directly related to the drug. As part of the review of safety data relating to this particular statin drug, the German government accused Bayer of withholding critical data during the approval process. Problems with this drug do not appear to affect users of other statin drugs.

    Fluvastatin

    • Fluvastatin, sold as Lescol and Lescol XL, is a statin drug used to treat high cholesterol. It works by inhibiting the precursors of LDL cholesterol and preventing the absorbtion of LDL cholesterols, the result being a drop in blood cholesterol levels.

    Mevastatin

    • Mevastatin was the precursor to lovostatin. It was never approved as a cholesterol reducing drug because of multiple serious side effects. However, it is used as the base to produce another statin drug, Pravastatin. Pravastatin is sold under the brand name Pravachol or Selektine.

    Rosuvastatin

    • Rosuvastatin, sold under the brand name Crestor, is the most recent statin drug. It lowers bothlow-density liporotein, (LDL) cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood. It has also been suggested that rosuvastatin is also effective in lowering very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) cholesterol.

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