Crestor vs Zetia
Two different routes to a lower LDL — production versus absorption — and why the combination is often stronger than either alone.
At a glance
Key differences
- Different classes. Crestor is a statin; Zetia is a cholesterol absorption inhibitor. They act on different targets in the body.
- Time on the market. Crestor was first approved by the FDA in 2003, Zetia in 2002.
- Who markets them. Crestor is marketed by AstraZeneca; Zetia by Organon.
- Same drug, more than one brand. Ezetimibe is sold as Zetia / Ezetrol — the same active ingredient marketed under different brand names, typically for different approved uses or doses.
What each one treats
A potent statin for lowering LDL cholesterol.
ZETIA ® is indicated: In combination with a statin, or alone when additional low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) lowering therapy is not possible, as an adjunct to diet to reduce elevated LDL-C in adults with primary hyperlipidemia, including heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HeFH). In combination with a statin as an adjunct to diet to reduce elevated LDL-C in pediatric patients 10 years of age and older with HeFH. In combination with fenofibrate as an adjunct to diet to reduce elevated LDL-C in adults with mixed hyperlipidemia. In combination with a statin, and other LDL-C lowering therapies, to reduce elevated LDL-C levels in adults and in pediatric patients 10 years of age and older with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HoFH). As an adjunct to diet for the reduction of elevated sitosterol and campesterol levels in adults and in pediatric patients 9 years of…
How each one works
A potent statin for lowering LDL cholesterol.
12.1 Mechanism of Action Ezetimibe reduces blood cholesterol by inhibiting the absorption of cholesterol by the small intestine. The molecular target of ezetimibe has been shown to be the sterol transporter, Niemann-Pick C1-Like 1 (NPC1L1), which is involved in the intestinal uptake of cholesterol and phytosterols. Ezetimibe localizes at the brush border of the small intestine and inhibits the absorption of cholesterol, leading to a decrease in the delivery of intestinal cholesterol to the liver. This causes a reduction of hepatic cholesterol stores and an increase in LDL receptors, resulting in clearance of cholesterol from the blood.
Related comparisons
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Which medicine is right for a given person depends on their diagnosis, other conditions, other medicines, kidney and liver function, pregnancy, and cost or reimbursement — none of which this page knows. Two drugs in the same class are not automatically interchangeable. Never start, stop or switch a prescription medicine on the basis of a web page; that decision belongs to you and your clinician or pharmacist.
How this page is built
The facts on this page are pulled directly from official U.S. FDA datasets — they are not written from memory. Each field below names the dataset it came from, so you can check it yourself.
- FDA Drug Label (openFDA) ↗ Indications, mechanism of action and pharmacologic class
- Drugs@FDA ↗ First FDA approval date and the company holding the application
- FDA Drug Shortage Database ↗ Current US supply / shortage status
Plain-English summaries and drug-class explainers are written and reviewed by Sreepriya Prasannan (MSc Digital Transformation of Life Sciences (Innopharma Education / Griffith College); MSc & BSc Botany). Data is retrieved automatically from the sources above and cross-checked with AI-assisted verification (Anthropic's Claude) — brand and generic names are matched against the exact FDA product record so that a combination product or a different formulation cannot be mistaken for the drug on this page. An editor reviews the result before publication. We describe this in full in our editorial standards and corrections policy. The FDA data on this page was last retrieved on 7 Oct 2026. How every register is built: methodology · fixes we have made: corrections log.