Using cost-effectiveness analysis to target cholesterol reduction (editorial).

The introduction of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors (statins) in the United States coincided with the massive “know your number” cholesterol awareness campaign. For both physicians and patients, these drugs offered a powerful solution to a problem that was being deeply impressed on the public consciousness. Besides dramatically decreasing levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, statins were more convenient and better tolerated than older therapies, such as bile acid–binding resins and niacin. Their popularity was immediate, and they soon accounted for billions of dollars in revenues. Atorvastatin, for example, surpassed $1 billion in sales during the year after its introduction, even though it was approved for use in the United States many years after other statins had become established therapy. (May 16, 2000)