FDA approves Abbott's Simcor for cholesterol

ABBOTT PARK, Ill. The Food and Drug Administration has approved Abbott Laboratories new cholesterol drug Simcor, according to Reuters.

Simcor combines simvastatin, the active ingredient of Merck’s statin drug Zocor that lowers “bad” LDL cholesterol, with Abbott’s Niaspan medicine that raises levels of “good” HDL cholesterol.

Simcor is a follow-up to Advicor, an Abbott combination product already on the market that pairs Niaspan with a less-potent statin known as lovastatin.

Abbott has said it expects sales of the new drug, which also lowers triglycerides to eventually reach $500 million per year.

“There is a clear need for medicines that both raise good and comprehensively lower the bad components of cholesterol,” Christie Ballantyne, one of the lead Simcor researchers, said in a statement.