FDA Panel Backs Crestor for People With Normal Cholesterol
December 16, 2009 - 4:13pm
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration should approve expanded use of the cholesterol-lowering drug Crestor to reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke and death in people with healthy cholesterol levels, an expert panel recommended Tuesday.
In a 12-4 vote with one abstention, the FDA advisory panel decided that Crestor's benefits outweigh its risks in patients with normal cholesterol and no history of heart disease, the Associated Press reported.
While not required to, the FDA usually follows the advice of its expert panels.
Crestor, made by AstraZeneca, is already a widely used drug, the AP reported.
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When Uffe Ravnskov, MD PhD actually went back and looked at the peer-reviewed medical literature he found 38 cohort studies where people with higher cholesterol on average lived longer and no published studies showing the converse. Not a bad end-point to look at. Of course, this still leaves out the whole issue of statin side effects. Weren't they saying just a couple weeks back that statins cured swine flu? Now they want to give them to healthy people with normal cholesterol. This is embarrassing, just creepy drug pushers. 20 Billion in yearly sales though. If you care to read up on cholesterol and overall mortality there is an introductory write-up here http://healthjournalclub.blogspot.com/2009/10/do-people-with-high-choles...