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Heart Valve Disease: a Potential New Market for Statins

Posted on: Thursday, 13 April 2006, 12:00 CDT

Researchers have discovered that heart valve disease is caused not by a 'wear and tear' phenomenon, but by an inflammatory process. The finding suggests that more options to manage the condition, such as statin therapy, will be embraced, reducing the need for surgery. The discovery could therefore herald further sales success for the already highly lucrative statin class.

Valvular heart disease is on the rise with the aging of the population in the major markets, and is second only to coronary artery disease as a cause for open heart surgery in the US. Heart valve disease leads to 100,000 surgeries in the US each year to repair or replace damaged valves. Mitral valve disease is a leading cause of atrial fibrillation, which is a major culprit in strokes and heart failure. Aortic valve disease can lead to heart failure, arrhythmia, and infections in the heart.

According to the Northwestern Memorial Hospital research, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, heart valve degeneration is caused by an inflammatory process triggered by high cholesterol that stimulates certain cells to reprogram into bone cells in the aortic valve, and cartilage cells in the mitral valve.

Until now, thickening of the mitral valves has been regarded as part of the aging process, and the only option so far is to surgically repair or replace the damaged valves.

The discovery could well lead to a paradigm shift in the medical community's beliefs about the cause of valve disease. As a result, the findings will make it possible for medical therapy to be considered for the prevention of the condition (or at least slowing the process), allowing many patients to avoid open heart surgery.

Indeed, the results from the early animal studies are promising. Animals treated with statins had significantly less heart valve disease than control animals that were not treated.

Statins are already widely prescribed across major markets - for example, in the UK, statins cost the NHS more than any other class of drug. In addition, the world's best-selling drug, Pfizer's Lipitor, which generated global sales of almost $13 billion in 2005, is a statin. This recent breakthrough in research on the causes of valvular heart disease is likely to increase the market size for statins still further.

Source: Datamonitor

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