JUPITER was the first clinical trial to indicate that statin therapy may provide benefit to patients with low-to-normal LDL levels and no known cardiovascular disease.
[4] Elevated hs-CRP levels are thought to be a biomarker of inflammation, and have been associated with an increased risk of myocardial infarction, stroke, peripheral arterial disease, and sudden cardiac death.
In 2008, results presented at the American Heart Association meeting and published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) found that patients with low-to-normal LDL cholesterol receiving rosuvastatin had a lower rate of major cardiovascular events.
[14] They also argued that the trial's premature termination may have distorted the results, and raised concerns that AstraZeneca scientists had controlled and managed the raw data.
They concluded that, "The results of the trial do not support the use of statin treatment for primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases and raise troubling questions concerning the role of commercial sponsors.