Since Hispanic individuals have been traditionally under-represented in clinical trials employing the use of lipid-lowering therapies, the safety and efficacy of statin therapy in Hispanic patients have not been well studied.

Therefore the STudy Assessing Rosuvastatin in HIspanic Population (STARSHIP) was undertaken to provide data on the effects of rosuvastatin and atorvastatin in an exclusively self-described Hispanic population with hypercholesterolemic.

The data showed, in part, Rosuvastatin therapy (10 and 20 mg/day) enabled hypercholesterolemic Hispanic patients to achieve significantly greater reductions in LDL-C and non-HDL-C than did milligram equivalents of atorvastatin.

Additionally, rosuvastatin treatment enabled the majority of patients to achieve NCEP ATP III LDL-C goals.

References:

1. Lloret, R et al.  Comparison of rosuvastatin versus atorvastatin in Hispanic-American patients with hypercholesterolemia (from the STARSHIP trial). American Journal of Cardiology. 2006;98:768-773.