Word: simvastatin
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...McCain regularly takes four medications: aspirin to prevent blood clots; Hydrochlorothiazide, for kidney stone prevention; Amiloride, to preserve potassium in the blood stream; and Simvastatin to lower his cholesterol. He also sometimes takes Ambien CR to help him sleep and Zyrtec, an antihistamine for nasal allergies...
...even there, Vytorin failed to show much effect. Vytorin is actually the combination of two drugs - one of the early statin medications, simvastatin (also known as Zocor), made by Merck, and ezetimibe, or Zetia, made by Schering-Plough. Ezetimibe is the first cholesterol-lowering medication that works by blocking absorption of cholesterol in the gut, rather than regulating the fat's production in the liver, like other statins do. ENHANCE compared the effect of Vytorin to simvastatin alone, and showed little difference between the two medications when it came to plaque size in the arteries. Simvastatin came off patent...
...meantime, doctors are likely to dial back on their use of Vytorin. "If they aren't getting to the target goal [cholesterol level] with generic simvastatin, then because this study is raising questions I think a lot of physicians will think about switching to higher doses of drugs like Lipitor or Crestor before going to Vytorin," says Blumenthal. At least the commercials got one thing right - your risk of heart disease does depend on the food you eat and the genes you inherit. It's just that Vytorin may not be best way to fight those factors when it comes...
Although the first statins were approved in the U.S. in 1987, they didn't really take off until 1994, when researchers in Scandinavia proved that simvastatin (brand name Zocor) could significantly decrease a heart patient's risk of dying from a second heart attack. After investigators showed that both simvastatin and pravastatin (Pravachol) could cut the number of first heart attacks among those with high cholesterol, doctors assumed that all statins could do likewise...
Merck & Co., which markets simvastatin under the brand name Zocor (and which funded the study), is expected to enjoy a boost in sales, as will other drug companies that offer competing products. "Anything that lowers cholesterol will produce the same effect," says Dr. Lance Gould of the University of Texas medical school in Houston. As if to underscore that point, a separate study released last week showed that a combination of estrogen and a new form of progesterone can cut cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of heart disease among postmenopausal women as much as 25% -- without serious side effects...