High Rate of Side Effects Damage Crestor’s Reputation

Crestor was initially developed by the Japanese pharmaceutical company Shionogi and was in-licensed to Astra-Zeneca, an international pharmaceutical company, in April 1998. The FDA approved Crestor in August 2003. Multiple clinical studies have confirmed the effectiveness of Crestor side effects in reducing LDL-C ('bad' cholesterol) and raising HDL-C ('good' cholesterol). Crestor is now treating over 4.5 million patients worldwide.Crestor belongs to a family of drugs called Statins. Statins combat cholesterol by blocking a specific enzyme in the body that synthesizes cholesterol. All Statins are accompanied by a higher risk of a dangerous and potentially fatal condition called Crestor rhabdomyolysis, but Crestor is particularly closely associated with it.

Statins are among the best-selling drugs in the United States, with $14.5 billion in combined sales in 2008. They use the liver to block the body’s creation of cholesterol, which is a key contributor to coronary artery Crestor diabetes.The FDA recently issued a warning that 80mg Crestor doses increase the risk of rhabdomyolysis and other muscle injuries.

Crestor Side Effect Outline

Potential side effects of Crestor, a blockbuster cholesterol drug that has been used by millions of people, may be linked to an increased the risk of serious and potentially life-threatening Crestor heart problems, such as Crestor cardiomyopathy, as well as diabetes. Crestor (atorvastatin) was approved by the FDA in 2003 for the treatment of high cholesterol. It is a member of a class of cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins. The drug is a direct competitor for Pfizer’s Lipitor and has a 12% market share of the $21 billion U.S. statin industry.

For the past year, Crestor, a statin drug originally approved to treat high cholesterol, has been increasingly used in people who don’t have a cholesterol problem as a way to prevent heart attacks or strokes. This expanded use was allowed despite growing concern about Crestor side effects, including liver damage, kidney damage, diabetes and a muscle disease called rhabdomyolysis.

Crestor Lawsuits Seek Number of Damages

Crestor side effects have driven many patients of the cholesterol-reducing statin drug to file suit against drugmaker AstraZeneca in order to gain damages that could compensate for their serious injuries and diseases from the drug. Most of the lawsuits allege that AstraZeneca was aware of the serious side effects, such as muscle injury, type 2 diabetes milletus, congestive heart failure, necrotic pancreatitis, and Crestor rhabdomyolysis, and should have warned the public about them. If the drugmaker was not, in fact, aware of these Crestor side effects, some lawsuits continue, they should have been—and may have been negligent in clinical trials.

The Food and Drug Administration issued a warning about “serious muscle toxicity” associated with Crestor and other statin drugs such as Zocor and Lipitor in 2005, after many patients had already sought legal aid in their battle against the drugmaker. Statins are now gaining a reputation, notorious for causing muscle damage, Crestor heart problems and other serious complications to patients who are only seeking to lower their cholesterol.