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LONDON, Sept 2 (Reuters) - AstraZeneca's key cholesterol drug Crestor has failed to beat Pfizer's Lipitor in a head-to-head clinical study, limiting any boost the British company will get as its U.S. rival prepares for competition from cheap generic copies.
"The results for the primary efficacy measure ... demonstrated a numerically greater reduction in favour of Crestor versus atorvastatin (Lipitor) but did not reach statistical significance," AstraZeneca said in a statement on Friday.
Crestor is already AstraZeneca's biggest-selling drug, with 2010 sales of $5.7 billion, but a good result would have helped cement its market position.
Equivalence or inferiority to Lipitor had been seen denting confidence in its prospects, just as the Pfizer medicine is about to go off patent from the end of November. (Reporting by Paul Hoskins; editing by Lorraine Turner)
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