Daewoong Pharmaceutical said Wednesday that it has confirmed the efficacy of its combination drug, “Olostar,” which treats hypertension and dyslipidemia, and published its research in the "American Journal of Therapeutics."
The company conducted clinical trials on 112 patients over 18 suffering from acute coronary artery syndrome with high blood pressure.
Among them, 55 took Olostar, and the other 57 took Angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB) + Atorvastatin, excluding Olmesartan. After 12 months, researchers compared the effects by checking patients' blood pressure and cholesterol levels after taking drugs.
Results showed that systolic and relaxation blood pressure dropped among people who took Olostar, compared to those that took ARB+Atrovastatin. The Olostar group also showed improvement in lipid concentrations and a sharp fall in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C).
The study also found that fixed-dose combination drugs (FDC) had higher medicine compliance than individual drugs. During 12 months of observation, only five patients that took Olostar stopped the treatment, while 20 patients that took individual drugs with ARB+Atrobastatin substance stopped taking medication.
It had already been known that anti-hypertension drugs and statin-based drugs reduce cardiovascular disease recurrence in patients with past medical history (PMH) of cardiovascular disease. Therefore, medicine compliance is important in preventing cardiovascular diseases' recurrence in patients with coronary artery syndromes, the company said.
"Olmesartan has a longer half-time and better blood pressure control than other ARB types. We conducted the study on the assumption that the combination of the two ingredients would be superior to other drugs since Rosuvastatin has an LDL-C reduction effect with a low amount of doses," said Cho Jin-man, director of the Department of Cardiology at Gangdong Kyung Hee University Hospital.
Lee Chang-jae, vice president for sales and marketing at Daewoong Pharmaceutical, also said, "We could affirm the value of Olostar by publishing it in American Journal of Therapeutics. We will continue to strive to enhance the quality of life for people with hypertension and dyslipidemia."