JW Pharmaceuticals announced on September 13 that it has confirmed the suppression of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in a clinical trial of "Livalo (ingredient name: Pitavastatin)" in people infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
The trial is the first study to confirm the efficacy of pitavastatin in people living with HIV and was published in the August issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
Dr. Steven K. Grinspoon, a professor at Harvard Medical School in the United States, and colleagues conducted the trial from March 2015 to July 2019, involving 7,769 people living with HIV in 12 countries. The researchers divided the patients into two groups, with 3,888 receiving pitavastatin at a dose of 4 mg per day and 3,881 receiving a placebo.
The results showed that the risk of cardiovascular events was 35% lower in the pitavastatin group than in the placebo group. A total of 136 cardiovascular events occurred in the placebo group, compared to 89 in the pitavastatin group.
In addition, the number of deaths due to cardiovascular events or other causes was 170 in the pitavastatin group, compared to 216 in the placebo group.
"The significance of this study is that it suggests the possibility of combining pitavastatin for the prevention of cardiovascular disease in HIV-infected individuals," said a representative from JW Pharmaceuticals.
