[Pharmacy clinics. Medication of the month. Cerivastatin (Lipobay, Cholstat)]

Cerivastatin, commercialized under the trade names of Lipobay by Bayer and Cholstat by Fournier Pharma, is a new synthetic statin. Because of its high affinity for HMG-CoA reductase enzyme that it specifically and selectively inhibited in the hepatocytes, cerivastatin exerts its cholesterol-lowering effect at very low doses, between 0.1 and 0.3 mg/day. Cerivastatin is indicated, after diet failure, in the treatment of primary forms of isolated hypercholesterolaemia or combined hyperlipidaemia. It is presented by the two pharmaceutical companies as 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 mg filmed tablets. Usual dose is 0.3 mg, once daily, to be reduced in presence of renal failure. Cerivastatin is metabolised within the liver by two different families of cytochrome P450, which limits the risk of drug interferences. Besides this potential advantage as compared with some other statins, its pharmacodynamic activity and safety profile seem to be similar to those of other agents of the same pharmacological family.