A study by a leading medical journal has concluded that AstraZeneca's controversial drug Crestor produces more than twice as many side effects as other common cholesterol lowering treatments.
According to the report's authors they have concerns about the drug's safety, and suggest that alternative drugs should be used before Crestor is prescribed in order to lessen the risk.
The U.S. consumer group Public Citizen, has been calling for the drug to be banned and the pharmaceuticals firm has strongly disagreed with the new research.
Only recently a ruling by U.S. regulator the Food and Drug Administration, backed the company's view that it is as safe as rival drugs.
The study was published yesterday by Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association, into the side effects seen in Crestor and other common anti-cholesterol drugs Lipitor, Zocor and Pravachol, and it concluded that the rate of side effects including rhabdomyolysis, a potentially fatal muscle wasting disease, and kidney failure is higher when taking Crestor than the other drugs.
The rate of adverse events was 28 per million prescriptions for Crestor, more than twice that of its rivals.
The article said that the Crestor rate was less than half that of Baycol, a drug that was withdrawn in 2001 due to severe side effects and deaths.
All the drugs are in a class known as statins.