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Gen: Do Cholesterol Drugs Do Any Good?From: art fougner, md (evsono@pipeline.com)Mon Feb 4 19:03:51 2008
Research suggests that, except among high-risk heart patients, the benefits of statins such as Lipitor are overstated. For one thing, many researchers harbor doubts about the need to drive down cholesterol levels in the first place. Those doubts were strengthened on Jan. 14, when Merck and Schering-Plough (SGP) revealed results of a trial in which one popular cholesterol-lowering drug, a statin, was fortified by another, Zetia, which operates by a different mechanism. The combination did succeed in forcing down patients' cholesterol further than with just the statin alone. But even with two years of treatment, the further reductions brought no health benefit. The second crucial point is hiding in plain sight in Pfizer's own Lipitor newspaper ad. The dramatic 36% figure has an asterisk. Read the smaller type. It says: "That means in a large clinical study, 3% of patients taking a sugar pill or placebo had a heart attack compared to 2% of patients taking Lipitor." Now do some simple math. The numbers in that sentence mean that for every 100 people in the trial, which lasted 3 1/3 years, three people on placebos and two people on Lipitor had heart attacks. The difference credited to the drug? One fewer heart attack per 100 people. So to spare one person a heart attack, 100 people had to take Lipitor for more than three years. The other 99 got no measurable benefit. Or to put it in terms of a little-known but useful statistic, the number needed to treat (or NNT) for one person to benefit is 100. http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/08_04/b4068052092994.htm Pastorek's Law - Follow the Money. There's gold in them thar pills. Art
-- art fougner, md "May The Wings of Liberty Never Lose a Feather." - Jack Burton
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