Fixeddose combination of rosuvastatin + ezetimibe: ease of use, safety and efficacy

Abstract

Today, cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally. Hyperlipidemia and dyslipidemia are key points in the occurrence and progression of CVDs, as well as the development of its complications. Elevated low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) is the target of lipid-lowering therapy. The LDL-C target level is often not achieved in everyday clinical practice, which is especially important for patients at high and very high risk for cardiovascular complications. Furthermore, in some patient subgroups, atherogenic dyslipidemia is observed. Due to use of intensive and prolonged lipid-lowering therapy, the problem of its tolerability and patient adherence to the treatment becomes a live issue today. In addition, the use of drugs with effect that complements and enhances the effect of statin helps to achieve targets and improve long-term prognosis. Statins and ezetimibe are effective and widely used drugs to treat dyslipidemia. Clinical studies show that ezetimibe can be safely co-administered with statins to enhance lipid-lowering activity. In this regard, a statin and non-statin drug fixed-dose combination tablet may have additional advantages both for enhancing the lipidlowering effect and for greater patient convenience. Rosuvastatin is more effective than other statins in reducing low density lipoprotein cholesterol. The article provides a rationale for the possibility, efficacy, safety and convenience of using an ezetimibe and rosuvastatin fixed-dose combination tablet in patients with a high and very high risk and unattained target level of low density lipoprotein cholesterol.

Keywords

• dyslipidemia
• lipid-lowering drugs
• low-density lipoprotein cholesterol
• rosuvastatin
• ezetimibe
• fixed-dose combination of drugs
• target lipid level