Study of Heart and Renal Protection (SHARP)

The SHARP study evaluated whether lowering cholesterol in patients with kidney disease affected their risk of having a heart attack, stroke or death. More than 9,000 patients with lower than normal kidney function (chronic kidney disease) in 380 hospitals across 18 countries around the world, were randomly given either a placebo or a combination of two drugs, simvastatin and ezetimibe. SHARP found that 1 in 6 events are prevented by lowering cholesterol with these two drugs and there is no increased risk for cancer or other major safety problems.

More information is available on the SHARP web-site: http://www.sharpinfo.org/. A follow-up study, SHARP-ER, began in April 2012.