Scientists at University of Oxford are hoping the test can help identify patients at increased risk of myopathy (severe muscle pain and weakness) and enable higher doses of statins to be safely prescribed to patients without the risk of the condition.
Researchers analyzed 85 myopathy patients for 300,000 genetic markers, 90 of whom were found to have no side effects after taking high doses of simvastatin, a cholesterol-lowering drug. Patients with variations in a single gene had a four-fold to 16-fold higher risk of the side effect, a known danger from cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins.
The study was partially funded by Merck & Co., which makes the drug called Zocor used in the experiment. The drug is now available as the low-cost generic simvastatin. Other cholesterol-lowering drugs include Pfizer Inc.'s Lipitor and AstraZeneca Plc's Crestor.
The study appears in the July 23rd issue of New England Journal of Medicine.
