Word: lipitor
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...trial of the cholesterol-lowering statin drug Lipitor last March found that high doses lowered patients' levels of LDL (the "bad" cholesterol) and also reduced their heart-attack risk. That's why the results of a new study on similarly high doses of the statin Zocor are so disappointing. In the 4,500patient study, published online by the Journal of the American Medical Association, patients taking high doses of Zocor fared no better than a low-dose group in terms of heart-attack risk, despite low LDL levels. Why? Perhaps because Lipitor works not just by lowering cholesterol but also...
Recent public-opinion surveys put the pharmaceutical industry in the unpleasant company of cigarette makers and oil giants, which may help explain why U.S. drug companies have been so eager to polish their image. Pfizer, maker of such blockbusters as Lipitor, Viagra and Zoloft, announced last week that it will provide discounted drugs to uninsured Americans, regardless of age or income. Average savings for families making less than $45,000 could be nearly 40%. Pfizer is also expanding a program that provides free medicine to families making less than $31,000. With politicians under pressure to lift rules preventing Americans...
...Pfizer's way, they may end up adding a pill that raises HDL, the good cholesterol that helps keep arteries clean. A study in the current New England Journal of Medicine reports that the drug torcetrapib boosted HDL levels 46%. When it was combined with the LDL-lowering drug Lipitor, the results were even more dramatic: HDL levels rose 61%, and LDL fell even more than it did with Lipitor alone. But will raising HDL levels mean lower rates of heart disease and fewer deaths? That's what Pfizer hopes to show. If it does, both the drug company...
Pravachol and Lipitor are both statins--a group of cholesterol-lowering drugs that are widely used in the treatment of heart disease. Doctors have long known that Lipitor lowers the level of LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol, more than Pravachol does. Both groups of patients in this study--to be published in the April 8 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine but released a few weeks early--had their LDL levels reduced below 100 mg/dL--the target currently recommended by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) for folks who have heart disease or diabetes. The Lipitor...
What experts take from this is not that Lipitor is superior but that the official LDL targets may not be low enough. "LDL lowering is the name of the game," says Dr. James Cleeman, coordinator of the National Cholesterol Education Program at the NHLBI. "I don't think you can conclude that one brand is better than the other." Cleeman's group, which sets U.S. guidelines, is preparing a scientific paper to explain how doctors can best use the latest results in their practice...