The American Heart Association meeting in Dallas this year brought new phase 2 data about several promising new cholesterol drugs. But before jumping on any bandwagons it would be good to remember that even for the drugs most far along in development we still haven’t seen any phase 3 data. In addition, it bears repeating that the…
Slouching Toward Phase 3: Progress Report On New Cholesterol Drugs At The AHA
November 25, 2013 by Leave a Comment
No Evidence That Statins Impact Cognitive Function
November 18, 2013 by Leave a Comment
In 2012 the FDA revised the label of statins to include a warning about reports that the drugs had been linked to memory loss or confusion. The FDA action appeared to be based largely on case reports. Despite concerns about this topic that have appeared sporadically in recent years, no high-quality review of the topic has appeared until now….
No Evidence That Statins Impact Cognitive Function
November 18, 2013 by Leave a Comment
In 2012 the FDA revised the label of statins to include a warning about reports that the drugs had been linked to memory loss or confusion. The FDA action appeared to be based largely on case reports. Despite concerns about this topic that have appeared sporadically in recent years, no high-quality review of the topic has appeared until now….
News From Our ‘Statin Civilization’: High-Dose Statins Found To Reduce Gum Disease Inflammation
October 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment
In addition to their well-known benefits in heart disease, high-dose statins appear to reduce gum inflammation caused by periodontal disease, a new report published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology shows. The findings offer more evidence that heart disease and gum disease may be linked, and also help support the view that statins achieve at least…
Low Rate Of Problems With Statins In Study Of Quarter Million Patients
July 9, 2013 by 1 Comment
A very large analysis of previously published studies finds that statins are generally safe and well tolerated, but helps confirm previous links to a small increased risk for diabetes and elevation of liver enzymes. Some statins were better tolerated than other statins and lower-dose statins were better tolerated than high dose statins. In a paper published…
Study Finds More Musculoskeletal Problems In People Who Take Statins
June 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment
An observational study published in JAMA Internal Medicine provides new evidence suggesting that people who take statins are more likely to develop musculoskeletal problems. Ishak Mansi and colleagues analyzed data from 6,967 statin users and an equal number of propensity-matched nonusers who were active-duty soldiers, veterans and their families in the San Antonio Military Area. They found that…
Unconventional Analysis Finds Threshold For LDL Reduction With Statins
April 29, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Using an unconventional mathematical approach, a group of Japanese researchers say there may be no good reason to reduce LDL cholesterol more than 40 mg/dl. Their research letter has been published online in JAMA Internal Medicine. According to the authors, members of the ALICE (All-Literature Investigation of Cardiovascular Evidence) Group, most meta-analyses use linear models…
Blood Sample Mismatch Leads ‘Anguished’ Authors To Retract Three Lipitor Papers
April 16, 2013 by 1 Comment
Three substudies of the influential TNT (Treating to New Targets) trial have been retracted after the sponsor of the trial, Pfizer, discovered that blood samples from the study had been matched to the wrong participants. The main results of TNT, published in 2005 in the New England Journal of Medicine, had a major impact on clinical practice and statin prescription patterns….
Lifelong Statin Sentence Now Includes Furloughs
April 2, 2013 by 1 Comment
Although the benefits of statins are among the best documented in all of medicine, continuous lifelong statin therapy is not always easy to achieve in clinical practice. Now a new retrospective study suggests that although clinical events causing temporary cessation of statin therapy occur often, most of these patients are later able to resume statin…
High Potency Statins Linked To Increased Risk For Acute Kidney Injury
March 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Although the beneficial effects of high-potency statins have been well-characterized in clinical trials, these same trials have lacked the power to illuminate rare but potentially important adverse events. A suggestion of one such area of concern, acute kidney injury, was first raised in the JUPITER trial. Now, a new study published in BMJ provides further information about this…
HPS2-THRIVE Coming Attraction: First Look At What Went Wrong With Niacin
February 27, 2013 by Leave a Comment
In a few weeks, on March 9, the main results of the HPS2-THRIVE (Heart Protection Study 2-Treatment of HDL to Reduce the Incidence of Vascular Events) study will be presented in San Francisco at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology. These results have been eagerly awaited since Merck’s brief announcement in December that the trial had not met its primary endpoint…
HPS2-THRIVE: No Benefit, Signal Of Harm For Niacin Therapy
December 20, 2012 by 3 Comments
The largest-ever study of niacin has failed to show a clinical benefit for niacin and even found a strong signal of harm. Merck announced today that the HPS2-THRIVE (Heart Protection Study 2-Treatment of HDL to Reduce the Incidence of Vascular Events) study did not meet its primary endpoint. In that study, the combination of a statin and Merck’s niacin compound, Tredaptive, a combination of extended-release…
Recent Comments