On this special week it's all hotting up nicely.
At this weeks beanfeast, the International Symposium on Atherosclerosis meeting in Rome, AstraZeneca is battling both Merck and Schering-Plough as the rivals seek to prove each has the best medicine for lowering cholesterol.
New clinical data presented at the weekend showed the U.S. drugmakers' two-in-one pill Vytorin (Inegy in the UK), which combines the ingredients ezetimibe and simvastatin, reduced "bad" cholesterol more than AstraZeneca's Crestor.
AstraZeneca hit back on Monday, however, with another trial showing that a combination of Crestor and ezetimibe reduced LDL cholesterol even more.
At this point Insider will stifle a yawn and ask the following question:
So what? Who should really be treated?
DB's Medical Rants has a post that might just be able to help here.
"The challenge to doctors is not to become so enamored by numbers that they strive for some theoretical advantage that may not in fact exist.
The hard part is not to write the prescription. "
Exactly! Now please pass the generic simvastatin.
2 comments:
I'm not sure your post from DB's is a particularly good choice- when one reads the actual thread, the post you cite appears to be from a patient with no medical training. I'm not going to argue his point, but for those who read your blog and don't follow the link- 99% will assume that your quote is from a reliable source. A patient is certainly not.
Truth is truth.
Post a Comment