Crestor is doomed to be a niche drug
AstraZeneca has issued a warning regarding its statin, Crestor:

The new label adds a clearer warning regarding the risk of rare muscle-weakening side effects that can lead to kidney damage or death. As the labeling emphasizes, these side effects occur in rare instances not only with Crestor, but with more established competitors such as Lipitor, Merck’s (nyse: MRK – news – people ) Zocor and Bristol-Myers Squibb’s (nyse: BMY – news – people ) Pravachol. The new Crestor label also contains a boldfaced instruction not to prescribe the highest dose of the drug (40 milligrams) unless patients have not been sufficiently helped by lower doses. Lipitor does not carry such an admonition.

Also: “Asians initially should be prescribed the lowest dose of Crestor. New studies of the way the drug works in the body showed that Asians may respond just as well to lower doses. The updated Crestor label recommends that Asians be started on the lowest dose, which is 5 milligrams.”

With these warnings, I would be hard-pressed to prescribe Crestor when the more established statins like Lipitor or Zocor are available. I believe that many physicians would feel the same way. Crestor certainly has a place in those with difficult-to-control hypercholesterolemia, but this is a niche market at best.