Experts who authored new cholesterol guidelines closely tied to makers of statin drugs
Experts on a panel for the National Cholesterol Education Program in mid-July called for the aggressive and increased use of statin medications to treat high cholesterol. However, the recent guidelines published by the panel did not list the panelists’ links to drug manufacturers of statin drugs.
According to Dr. James Cleeman, the coordinator of National Cholesterol Education Program, a division of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, called the initial omission an oversight and reassured the public that the panelists’ relationships with the drug companies would be posted on the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s website within days. Six out of a total of nine panelists were linked to companies that produce some of the most popular statin medications. These six panelists received grants from the pharmaceutical companies or fees for speaking or consulting.
Despite the lack of disclosure of this information, cardiologists did not seem to doubt the quality of the research behind the guidelines that the panel produced. As Dr. Steven Nissen stated, “It should have been there,” but “it is hard to work in the lipid field and not have gotten a grant from a pharmaceutical company.”
Statin drugs currently earn pharmaceuticals $20 billion dollars a year, and about 36 million Americans are on statin therapy for cardiovascular problems. The new recommendations set forth by the panel drastically lower the cholesterol level that is considered safe and suggests that the increased use of statin medications will help doctors lower patients’ cholesterol to this new recommended level. But consumer watchdogs say that the new standard of care set by these guidelines will only serve to increase the drug industry’s bottom line.
One of the authors, Dr. H. Bryan Brewer was recently the subject of a letter to the director of the National Institutes of Health because he failed to disclose his ties to the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, the producer of the stain medication Crestor.
Brewer authored a report in a medical journal that praised Crestor without disclosing the fact that he is a paid consultant for AstraZeneca. Dr. Sidney Wolfe wrote the letter because he feels that the public needs to be made aware of ethical conflicts of interest such as this one. “The public has the right to know every amount,” Wolfe said.
The Source:
Newsday.com
