Statins reduce the risk of heart disease and strokes dramatically, a trial has shown. The results were so clear that researchers halted the trial into the effects of rosuvastatin on 18,000 patients seven months early.

The Jupiter trial tested the effects of the drug on people who had raised levels of a protein, hsCRP, linked to increased risk of heart disease. The patients had normal or low levels of cholesterol.

Among those who received medium doses of the drug, sold under the brand Crestor, the risk of heart attack fell by 54 per cent, strokes by 48 per cent and the combined risk of heart attack, stroke and heart-related death by 47 per cent. The results were announced at the American Heart Association and published online by the New England Journal of Medicine.

Patients were recruited for the trial from 26 countries, with 16 per cent coming from Britain, and were monitored, on average, for almost two years. Professor Jim Shepherd, of the University of Glasgow, led the British element.

Previous statin trials, which have usually concentrated on raised levels of “bad” low-density lipo-protein cholesterol, suggested that researchers could expect to see a 25 per cent reduction in heart attacks and strokes. Researchers, led by Paul Ridker, from Harvard Medical School, were taken aback by the much greater improvements shown by the Jupiter trial. They reported: “The reduction was almost twice this magnitude.” Hazard reductions were similar for men and women, and groups normally assumed to be at very low risk were found to benefit. Rosuvastatin was highly effective at reducing levels of cholesterol and the hsCRP protein, the researchers said.

The trial was funded by AstraZeneca, which manufactures Crestor. However, the company played no part in the data analysis or drafting of the paper, researchers said. Sarah Jarvis, women’s health spokesman for the Royal College of General Practitioners, described the results as extremely exciting.

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