by Deb Cupples | Last week, USA Today reported that some heart specialists are worried -- based on a recent study -- that the cholesterol drug Vytorin may increase the risks of death by cancer:
"The 2,000-patient SEAS study found a roughly 70% increase in the risk of dying from cancer. But the Oxford analysis of the two ongoing studies, called IMPROVE-IT and SHARP, found about a 33% increase in the risk of dying from cancer, considered borderline in statistical significance."
I'm not sure how a 33% increase in cancer-death risks could be considered anywhere near statistically insignificant, but then medicine isn't my field.
Interestingly enough, the article doesn't state who or which company(s) funded the various studies and analyses. That would be useful information, given that Vytorin and the chemically similar drug Zetia (made by Merck and Schering-Plough) are important to their manufacturers, accounting for about $4 billion a year in sales.
Rather disturbing was the comment of former FDA commissioner David Kessler:
"The hard part is if you're a patient before all the data come in, when you have scientists waging these (debates) about the level of risk." (USA Today)
Mr. Kessler seems to think that the public should be kept in the dark about the potential risks until the drug's side effects are truly understood. Closed-door debates might be nice for drug manufacturers' sales numbers, but understanding side effects can take years. In the mean time, patients would be exposing themselves to all sorts of unknown risks.
If patient health is the main goal here, it seems that advance warning of potential risks might be a good thing.
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