Diagnostic Test for Personalised Statin Treatment

18th November 2010

Two recent studies at Oxford have highlighted the potential healthcare and economic benefits of personalising statin treatment based on a patient’s genetic risk to statin-induced myopathy. Researchers at Oxford have identified a biomarker which is highly associated with statin-induced myopathy that could form the basis of a diagnostic test for this side effect of statin use. Oxford University Innovation has filed a patent application based on this discovery and is looking for commercial partners to develop this test.

Myopathy is a rare side effect of statin use that results in muscle pain and weakness. Researchers at the Clinical Trial Service Unit at the University of Oxford have previously identified a biomarker that is highly associated with statin-induced myopathy, as reported in The New England Journal of Medicine in 20081, 2.

The new studies3, published by the same group at Oxford in The Lancet4, 5, demonstrate the potential healthcare benefits of intensive statin use in people at risk of heart disease. This treatment resulted in a 15% further reduction in cardiovascular events and deaths compared to standard statin therapy. However, raising blood concentrations with higher statin doses, particularly with generic statins (such as Simvastatin), also increases the rate of myopathy. The authors advise that it may be safer to use low doses of more potent statins (such as Lipitor or Crestor) rather than to increase the dose of less potent statins (such as Simvastatin) in individuals at risk of myopathy.

Testing for the Oxford biomarker would allow an individual’s statin treatment to be personalised based on their genetic risk of myopathy. This offers both potential cost- savings and healthcare benefits by identifying individuals who could safely benefit from low-cost generic statins (such as Simvastatin) versus individuals who could benefit from the newer more potent, but expensive, branded statins.

References
1. http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/NEJMoa0801936

2. www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2008/080724_1.html

3. www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2010/100911.html

4. www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)61350-5/abstract

5. www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)60310-8/abstract

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