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Crestor belongs to the category of drugs called HMG CoA reductase inhibitor. The purpose of this drug is to block the construction or production of the cholesterol in the body.

Crestor is used to lower the amount of the LDL cholesterol, total cholesterol, triglycerides and apolipoprotein B in the blood. This drug could also raise the level of HDL or good cholesterol in the body. This is important to lower the danger of atherosderosis that could result to stroke, heart attack, and peripheral vascular disease.

There are some situations in which Crestor could not be used. Talk to your doctor first before taking Crestor if you have problems in the kidney, hypothyroidism, chronic muscular disease, blood disorder, drinking alcoholic beverages, and needs major surgery. If you have the said conditions, your doctor might not allow you to take Crestor, adjust your dose, or require you a special monitoring during the treatment. Crestor belongs to the FDA pregnancy category X that means that this drug is known to bring harm in an unborn baby. In case you are pregnant or planning to be pregnant during the treatment, do not take this drug. Talk to your doctor first before taking Crestor if you are breast-feeding a baby because it is unknown whether this drug passes to breast milk and has the capacity to harm a nursing infant.

Follow the exact direction or instruction given to you by your doctor. Un case you did not understand the instruction, do not hesitate to ask your doctor, pharmacist, or nurse to explain them to you. It is advisable to take Crestor with a full glass of water. You can take this drug with or without food. The intake of this drug is usually once a day. If possible take every dose of this drug at the same time each day but you should still follow the doctor’s instruction. To get the most benefit, take this drug on a regular basis. It will take weeks or months before you see the beneficial effects of this drug. Talk to your doctor first before you stop taking his drug. Your doctor might require you to have a monitoring of the liver function with blood tests before you start using this drug. The frequency or amount of your monitoring will depend on the result of the tests. You should avoid fatty and high-cholesterol foods to get the good effects of this drug.

You can obtain your dosage of Crestor from your doctor. The dose varies from person to person. Make sure to take the exact dose given to you by your doctor.

Public Citizen Advocacy Group Petitions FDA to Ban Crestor

Citing seven cases of life-threatening rhabdomyolysis (muscle destruction) and nine cases of kidney failure or kidney damage in patients using low doses of Crestor, US consumer advocacy group Public Citizen petitioned the FDA to ban the cholesterol-lowering drug Crestor from the market. According to Public Citizen’s Dr. Sidney Wolfe, “Crestor has no unique advantage, but some unique risks” over other statins, such as an ability to cause primary kidney damage including failure. Two health insurers agree:

Two major U.S. insurers, WellPoint/Blue Cross, with 15 million patients insured, and Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound (GHCPS) with more than 500,000 members have refused to reimburse for Crestor. “We’ve already been Baycolled,” said Dr. Robert Seidman, chief pharmacy officer for the Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based WellPoint. “There is a level of nervousness, and we’re being conservative and we’re being cautious,” Seidman also said.

Baycol, or cerivastatin, was banned after 31 cases of fatal rhabdomyolysis, none of which were seen prior to approval. In contrast, there were seven cases of rhabdomyolysis in patients receiving Crestor (rosuvastatin) before its approval. All were receiving a dose of 80 milligrams, which was not approved by the FDA, but as Public Citizen points out, “a small patient getting even the 40 milligram dose might be receiving the same amount of drug per pound of body weight and we were concerned that cases would occur at this 40 milligram dose or even lower doses.”

More recently, Medco Health Solutions has decided not to reimburse for Crestor and United Health Care has placed Crestor in the highest tier of three out-of-pocket categories to discourage use of Crestor.

Crestor, or rosuvastatin, which was approved by the FDA in August 2003, is marketed by AstraZeneca as a “super-statin” because it is the strongest of all statins currently on the market, a point which concerns Public Citizen:

Bayer withdrew cerivastatin in August, 2001, after the occurrence of unexpected cases of fatal rhabdomyolysis. The 80 mg dose of rosuvastatin was withdrawn by AstraZeneca because of safety concerns. Some critics are even anxious about the 40 mg dose. The finding of proteinuria [protein in the urine] and microscopic haematuria [blood in the urine] associated with rosuvastatin use are additional worries. Since there are no reliable data about efficacy [that is, actually decreasing heart attacks and strokes, not merely lowering cholesterol levels] and safety–and AstraZeneca is facing unusually acute commercial pressure to force rosuvastatin into the market–doctors should pause before prescribing this drug. Physicians must tell their patients the truth about rosuvastatin–that, compared with its competitors, rosuvastatin has an inferior evidence base supporting its safe use. AstraZeneca has pushed its marketing machine too hard and too fast.

Public Citizen says that in the past it has been instrumental in inducing the FDA to remove products such as Rezulin (diabetes drug) and Redux (weight loss drug) from the market.