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Crestor (rosuvastatin) cholesterol lowering drug is manufactured by AstraZeneca, the U.K.''s second largest drugmaker. The company has just announced it has 7.5 percent of new U.S. prescriptions, which is an increase from the company''s last update in July. Crestor was introduced last year and generated sales of $465 million through the end of the second quarter but has had suffering sales this year after consumer group Public Citizen published a Crestor safety concern letter in a recent issue of the British medical journal, “The Lancet.”

Now AstraZeneca is in the process of trying to get approval for distributing Crestor in the Saudi market, despite clinical studies being carried out in Saudi Arabia showing the drug is linked to rhabdomyolysis. Despite any safety concerns, it is believed that Crestor will still be approved even before it has been given a chance to be proven safe or even more dangerous.

Public Citizen consumer group''s Sidney Wolfe said in the first seven months on the market Crestor had been linked to 18 cases of rhabdomyolysis , and its presence on the market unnecessary due to the availability of other statin drugs without the adverse effects. According to Wolfe, “There are many other statins so I see no reason for this one to be on the market.” Crestor was the sixth cholesterol lowering statin drug to enter the U.S. market upon its August 2003 FDA approval.

Wolfe has also voiced concern over the seven cases of rhabdomyolysis, which appeared during field trials. The Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee recommended kidney monitoring be required for patients taking 40 milligrams of Crestor per day, but the FDA did not take the advice pointing out the packaging insert already warned dose reduction for patients taking 40 mg therapy of Crestor should be considered.