crestor

AstraZeneca's core earnings per share rose 9% in the second quarter, helped by a strong performance in emerging markets. While the British pharmaceutical warned the rest of the year will be "challenging," it also raised its 2010 earnings forecast for the third time this year.

AstraZeneca shares surged by almost 9% Tuesday after the company scored a win in court regarding the patent for its cholesterol treatment, Crestor. The ruling means that AstraZeneca won't have to worry about generic competition for its multibillion-dollar statin until 2016.

When AstraZeneca announced Tuesday that Crestor had won European Union approval for patients who are at high risk for hear attacks and stroke, but have normal cholesterol levels, some in the medical community no doubt cringed. Questions remain about the drug's risks, and its effectiveness.

The FDA just gave AstraZeneca its blessings to add 6.5 million healthy people to its rolls of patients taking Crestor, a statin drug, as a preventative even if they do not have high cholesterol. That means health insurance will pay $3.50 per pill for all these millions of people until at least...

Earlier this week, AstraZeneca's widely used cholesterol-lowering drug Crestor was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in people with normal cholesterol to prevent heart attacks and strokes. The approval could lead to a much bigger market for Crestor, but has also led to a number of critics questioning the decision.

AstraZeneca scored a win on Tuesday, when a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended broader use of Crestor, the company's cholesterol-lowering drug. The panel recommended that those with low cholesterol use the drug, following studies finding that Crestor reduces the risk of heart disease even in those with normal cholesterol levels.