All GLG News Analyses Filed Under: Cardiology

We need meds that lower both LDL and help with triglycerides and HDL. With issues now with zetia and vytorin, the introduction of this combo could not be more fortuitous.

Simcor does not remove the major complication that occurs with niacin which is flushing. I do not see this as a successful drug.

This is yet another trial proving that clinicians should not be fooled by surrogate endpoints - only the real thing counts, namely hard end-point studies. Just like the negative FIELD study before it this just shows that over-confidence in surrogates like plasma cholesterol, HDL or triglycerides is...

The oral anticoagulant market is huge and expanding. It is currently dominated by warfarin, which is widely prescribed, but which needs monthly blood draws to monitor the treatment intensity. The parenteral (non-oral) anticoagulant market is dominated by two players: [unfractioned] heparin (which is...

As is so often the case, the long-term benefits or risks of a particular therapy can only be evaluated by equally long-term studies. And the marketing and patent facts of life mean that drugs are released and pushed before all the data (or even sufficient data) is in, often with disastrous effects.

Statin therapy in lower risk populations will not have as profound an effect as in high risk subsets but still very likely has overall positive benefits.

For people without cardiovascular disease or > 70 there is no benefit to statins!!!!

I anticipate vytorin and zetia sales will be down substantial when the IMS numbers come out tommorrow, but that this will be only the beginning of a negative trend for these scripts. I list below several reasons why.

TRITON-TIMI 38 study of 13,608 patients with ACS compared prasugrel against clopidogrel, combined with aspirin.  Prasugrel reduced the combined rate of CV death, MI or stroke (12.1% for clopidogrel vs. 9.9% for prasugrel). The benefit came at a cost of increased serious bleeding (1.4%, vs....

Two new studies add to the safety data of off-label use of drug-eluting stents.