GLG News by Heart Failure Specialists (US)

The JUPITER trial showed that people with what is regarded as normal ('bad') cholesterol and elevated C-reactive protein benefit more from the choleterol lowering drug rosuvastatin (Crestor, Astra-Zeneca) than from placebo. The first question is: is this true only for this particular type of statin...

     There will need to be some changes in the process by which the FDA evaluates drugs and devices. Quick vetting will require: 1. Safety: No signals of danger 2. Cost: No increase in cost, or actual savings 3. Benefits: When compared to current therapy, not placebo      ...

The Endeavour stent appears to have a higher restenosis rate than currently marketed Drug Eluting Stents without the improved safety profile claimed by the company.  This finding is at odds with the companies marketing message to cardiologists.  These studies, along with the introduction of...

This plan to start a large trial to determine the optimal antiplatelet therapy. after [drug-eluting] stent implantation makes sense both scientifically and economically for the involved stent companies (Johnson & Johnson, Boston Scientific, Medtronic and Abbott). Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol Myers...

The growth of the big pharma companies in the past 20-30 years has to do with the fact that the medical community was willing to accept large trials (some with surrogate endpoints) as proof that a new treatment is good and that it can replace the old one. Since the problems with Troglitazone, Cerivastatin,...

The anemia drug erythropoietin and its congeners have been used extensively in patients with renal failure and in patients with cancer to boost the red cell count. However, erythropoietin also helps reduce programmed cellular death and is involved in the growth of new vessels. Because of these features...

The Medicare drug system was a political ploy. This just confrims it. The private insurers were unwilling to offer Rx coverage before then because they understood the economics of it.

The general public hears the bullet that stents are no better than medications, but the reality that this trial (COURAGE trial) had major flaws, the main being that only 10% of the patients screened participated in the trial. 90% were excluded. Thus, the patients enrolled were not necessarily the typical...

If truly an association, this will alter the use of this drug.

the impact will be small. The study is not a big surprise. No cardiologist thought he is saving lives stenting arteries in stable patients. The study required every one to get an angiogram if they had an abnormal stress test to qualify. We probably already not refer every abnormal test for cath using...