It looks like the initial approval of Lipitor was in the hundreds of patients. Now, statins were brand new and not used really broadly. Pfizer did a ton of follow up studies, but looking at the most current label.
The two biggest trials, ASCOT and CARDS, which measured improvements in mortality (needed to be big trials to measure any difference), they were ~10,000 and ~2,000 patients each.
So suffice to say, Lipitor, which is used in a massive population, has probably been tested, in clinical trials, on a total number of patients comparable to the Pfizer Covid vaccine trial. Obviously the duration of the Lipitor trials were much longer and there a massive body of clinical data from actual use, but it at least gives you some perspective on numbers.
https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/daf/index.cfm?ev...
It looks like the initial approval of Lipitor was in the hundreds of patients. Now, statins were brand new and not used really broadly. Pfizer did a ton of follow up studies, but looking at the most current label.
https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2009/02...
The two biggest trials, ASCOT and CARDS, which measured improvements in mortality (needed to be big trials to measure any difference), they were ~10,000 and ~2,000 patients each.
So suffice to say, Lipitor, which is used in a massive population, has probably been tested, in clinical trials, on a total number of patients comparable to the Pfizer Covid vaccine trial. Obviously the duration of the Lipitor trials were much longer and there a massive body of clinical data from actual use, but it at least gives you some perspective on numbers.