Spiralling health care costs are sure to be a big issue in the coming US presidential election. So here's a number for the candidates to debate: $1.5 billion.
That is the unnecessary sum spent on cholesterol-lowering pharmaceuticals in the US in 2006 alone, thanks to the marketing of a drug that doesn't actually seem to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
This sobering figure comes from researchers led by Cynthia Jackevicius of the Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California, US, who have analysed prescriptions of ezetimibe, a drug that inhibits the uptake of cholesterol, in the US and Canada.
Ezetimibe was launched in the US, as Zetia, in October 2002, and in Canada, branded as Ezetrol, in May 2003. The drug was intended as an addition to treatment with statins, and prescriptions in the US accelerated after July 2004, after it was marketed as a combination pill, along with the statin Vytorin.
This was backed by a large advertising campaign.
While ezetimibe does reduce levels of LDL, or "bad" cholesterol, manufacturers Merck and Schering-Plough announced in January that the combination of ezetimibe and a statin had failed to produce a greater reduction in the thickening of artery walls in a clinical trial, compared to treatment with a statin alone.
The Vytorin ads were pulled soon afterwards, and a US congressional committee is now investigating allegations that Merck and Schering-Plough were aware of the results for some time before making their announcement.
More at The New Scientist
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