Combo Cholesterol Drugs Show No Added Heart Benefits
Combination of statins and niacin, both cholesterol modifying medications, don’t reduce the chances of having a heart attack, according to findings by the AIM-HIGH trial conducted by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI). These findings prompted the NHLBI to stop its trial a year and a half early.
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Risks of Cholesterol Drugs
How will history judge me for questioning the benefits of cholesterol-lowering drugs (CLDs)? I’ll never know, but a report in the British Medical Journal now says that the side effect of …
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Reducing Need for Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, Cholesterol, and Osteoarthritis Drugs
WebMD discusses the lifestyle steps that may reduce your need for drugs that treat diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and osteoarthritis.
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Statins may stave off septic lung damage, new research finds
Statins may be best known for their ability to reduce cholesterol, but a new research report shows that these same drugs could also play a crucial role in the reduction of lung damage resulting from severe abdominal sepsis and infection.
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3 In 4 U.S. Prescriptions Are Now For Generic Drugs
United States (KaiserHealth) – The brand-name pharmaceutical industry has a drug problem.
All 10 of the most prescribed medicines in the U.S. last year were generics, led by the defending champion generic equivalents of Vicodin (hydrocodone plus acetaminophen). There were 131 million prescriptions dispensed for the painkiller last year, up 3 million from 2009, according to data released Tuesday by the IMS Institute for Health Informatics.
The persistence of Vicodin-like medicines at the top of the chart is one reason why the White House is pushing new approaches to reducing the abuse and misuse of prescription painkillers.
In 2010, generic medicines accounted for more than three-quarters of the prescriptions dispensed by retail drugstores and long-term care facilities. The exact figure is 78 percent, a historic high that was up four percentage points from 2009. Generic use has climbed steadily from 63 percent of dispensed prescriptions in 2006.
The shift to generics has picked up a lot of steam lately. Some very popular drugs, including Alzheimer’s pill Aricept and prostate medicine Flomax, went generic in 2010.
Take a close look at simvastatin, the cholesterol-fighter known as Zocor when it was a brand-name giant for Merck. It was the second-most dispensed medicine last year, with 94.1 million prescriptions filled.
Late this year, Lipitor, the top-selling brand-name prescription medicine in the U.S., will also go generic, and it’ll become a whopper pretty fast. It’s No. 12 on the 2010 IMS prescription rankings.
Big Pharma’s losses have meant savings for consumers, insurers and employers that pay for health coverage. The average copayment fell 20 cents to $10.73 last year compared with 2009. The biggest factor in the decline was greater use of generics, which typically require the lowest copayment from consumers, according to IMS.
Where’s the most money going. Cancer medicines. For the third year running, oncology drugs topped the spending list. In 2010, the drugs accounted for about $22.3 billion in spending, up nearly $800 million from 2009.
– Provided by Kaiser Health News.
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Cholesterol drugs could cut clots
Drugs used to regulate levels of cholesterol in the blood may also reduce the risk of dangerous blood clots, say researchers.
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Patents for 11 drugs end, pharma firms brace for loss of sales to generics
Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Patents of 11 drugs sold in the U.S. are about to end this year. Pharmaceutical companies are bracing for loss of sales to generics on the 11 drugs, which have combined yearly sales of almost $50 billion.
By November, Pfizer’s patent for cholesterol drug Lipitor ends, placing at risk the company’s $10 billion yearly sales on the drug. Pfizer filed for a reissue of Lipitor’s calcium salt patent in January 2007, but the Patent Office rejected the application.
To fill in the anticipated sales gaps, some of the large drug firms bought their competitors during the last 24 months. Pfizer purchased Wyeth for $68 billion, Merck bought Schering-Plough for $41 billion, Genentech sold out to Roche for $46 billion and Sanofi-Aventis bought Genzyme for $20 billion.
An industry expert said that it is now panic time for the pharmaceutical industry on realization that drug firms do not have enough products in their pipeline or portfolio or enough revenue to sustain research and development. They also have to deal with research failures, such as the failed clinical trials of the replacement for Lipitor.
As a consequence, the drug firms reduced 53,000 jobs in 2010, on top of the 61,000 jobs they cut in 2009.
Pfizer, with up to 30 percent reduction on R & D in the next two years, will refocus its efforts on smaller niches in cancer, inflammation, neuroscience and branded generics, according to new Pfizer president Ian Read.
The drug firms’ biggest competitors continues to be generic drugs, which now account for 75 percent of all prescriptions in the U.S.
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Cheap generic drugs eat into pharma cos sales
At the end of November, Pfizer stands to lose a $10-billion-a-year revenue stream when the patent on its blockbuster cholesterol drug Lipitor expires and cheaper generics begin to cut into the company’s huge sales.
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FDA recalls unapproved cough, cold, allergy drugs
Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday ordered the recall of dozens of unapproved prescription cough, cold and allergy drugs from the market as these pose greater health risks to consumers than approved medicines.
Among the drugs that cannot be legally marketed and distributed in the U.S. are Allerx, Bronkids Liquid, Carbodex DM Drops, Coldamine, Decongest II Tablets, Execof Tablets, J Tan D Tablets Chewable, Liquicough DM Liquid, Mintex, Phenyl T Suspension, Pseudo Cough Syrup, Rhinabid Capsules, Sinutuss DM Tablets, Sitrex Tablets, Viravan DM and Zotex Syrup.
The FDA said the unapproved drugs have not been evaluated by the agency for safety, effectiveness, and quality. It said many health care providers are unaware of the unapproved status of drugs and have continued to unknowingly prescribe them because the drugs’ labels do not disclose that they lack FDA approval.
Deborah Autor, director of the Office of Compliance in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said consumers should instead use FDA-approved cough, cold and allergy tablets, syrups and suspension.
Companies that manufacture unapproved drugs must cease manufacturing them within 90 days and stop shipping the products within 180 days, according to the FDA.
The agency also asked consumers and health care professionals to report side effects of the unapproved drugs.
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Spending For Prescriptions To Control Cholesterol And Diabetes Exceed $52 Billion
, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Metabolic medicines were the class of drugs with the highest level of spending in 2008. …
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