GLG News by Physicians who Treat Hypertension (US)

Most hospitals are financially built on their heart programs. The "agressive" medical arm is conservative by our standards yet as good as stents at far less cost. If this was truly pursued by large companies with TPA insurance plans, their overall cost would drop with large savings in healthcare costs....

The ACCORD trial results were no suprise to our diabetes practice. We have been heavy users of Byetta since launch in 2005, and have seen the same results in our population of > 2000 diabetics with over 700 on Byetta. Since the Simpson et al study in the Canadian Journal of Medicine (CMAJ 2006;174(2):169-74)...

The co-marketing with Abbott will undoubtedly help Crestor sales, if they can effectively develop a fenofibrate-rosuvastatin combination, and avoid over-burdening physicians with reps. However, there are other factors that will probably have a larger impact. 

Given what happened to Galvus, and the similar poor selectivity of saxagliptin for DPP-4 over other isoforms, I think that FDA approval is unlikely. There was also some data on changes in white count presented at the ADA that will hurt this agent. The FDA move to recommend outcome studies for DM treatments...

This will probably help Byetta sales modestly. However, the numbers ere small, it was a non-randomized comparison, and may be that Byetta use was a surrogate for less sulfonurea use, lower doses of insulin or no insulin at all (any of which may be harmful). However, the main barrier to more widespread...

This study pretty convincingly shows that there is only a short term symptom and quality of life improvement associated with coronary stenting, as compared to good quality pharmacological treatment. This will decrease the pressure for aggressive revascularization of any and all coronary lesions...

Given the increased awareness for toxicities related to SSRIs, this article is quite important.

The  potential market for treatment of lipids(cholesterol)continues to grow. Recent recommendations regarding potential for treatment of children as young as 8 are controversial, primarily because of the lack of data to demonstrate efficacy in terms of "hard" endpoints(i.e. mortality/MI)vs. morbidity...

Over the past 15 years there have been several long-term trials which have provided evidence that reduction of systolic pressure in an elderly population prevents the cognitive decline associated with ageing. The most recent studies have demonstrated the prevention of Alzheimer's-like symptoms. These...

Given the economic pressures on patients, they are now more likely to ask for generic medications than they were in the past.  Given that there are generic versions of several classes of medications, physicians such as me are more likely to comply with a patient's request for a generic than in...