In the wake of the continuing soap opera (featuring congressional hearings and the publication of hot corporate e-mails) over Vytorin that has resulted from publication of the ENHANCE trial, here's some positive news on the cholesterol-therapy front.

This week, Astra-Zeneca announced they were closing the JUPITER trial because the study drug, Crestor (rosuvastatin), showed unequivocal benefit. JUPITER had enrolled over 15,000 men and women with no evidence of heart disease and normal-to-low LDL cholesterol levels, but whose CRP levels were elevated. (CRP, a marker of inflammation, has been associated with increased cardiac risk. The statin drugs have been shown to reduce CRP levels.) The participants were then randomized to receive either Crestor or placebo.

The JUPITER trial had been scheduled to continue for some time, but this week the study's Independent Data Monitoring Board (a panel of experts whose job is to control the study's data without interference from the sponsor), reported that study participants randomized to Crestor were showing an unequivocal reduction in cardiovascular mortality and morbidity as compared to those on placebo, and recommended that the study be stopped. It will be some time before the actual results from the JUPITER study are compiled and presented publicly.

Based on what we now know, JUPITER is likely to become another piece of evidence that the known benefits of statin drugs may not be limited to their lipid-lowering capabilities, but may at least in part derive from some of their other effects. Read about cholesterol, statins and everything here.