Modern drugs cut heart attack risk within 90 days

LONDON (Reuters) - Patients taking modern blood pressure and cholesterol drugs significantly reduce their risk of suffering a heart attack within 90 days of starting treatment, researchers said on Monday.

New analysis from a 19,000-patient study sponsored by Pfizer Inc showed its cholesterol drug Lipitor used alongside its anti-hypertensive Norvasc reduced the risk of fatal and non-fatal cardiac events by 53 percent, with the benefits evident after only three months.

The results, published online in the European Heart Journal, are the latest in a batch of findings from the so-called ASCOT study to highlight the fact that modern medicines can half the risk of heart attacks.

The new data also showed Lipitor plus was about three times more effective at preventing heart attacks than Lipitor plus a beta-blocker, an older type of blood pressure drug.

The positive ASCOT news emerged just after Pfizer dropped a bombshell this weekend, when it scrapped development of a new kind of anticholesterol drug called torcetrapib.

Lipitor is the world's biggest-selling medicine but it loses U.S. patent protection in 2011.