STATINS: Now you can buy them over the counter (U.K.)

[Guest guest]

(added: No problem with the availablity of these drugs, eat em like candy if ya

want, but watch out for those dangerous vitamin thingies. frank)

 

 

STATINS: Now you can buy them over the counter (U.K.)

 

Our story last time about the dangers of statins has clearly struck a chord with

drug regulators in the UK who are now making them available over-the-counter.

 

So anyone can pop into their local pharmacy and pick up a supply of these great

drugs that apparently every year save the lives of 7,000 patients with very high

cholesterol levels.

 

Even though they have been available only by prescription, the statins have

quickly become the most successful drug family, worth $20 billion each year, and

are now the most profitable in the rich history of the drug industry.

 

Drug regulators have removed the last restriction on sale, and so the sky's the

limit for the manufacturers. Trouble is, statins aren't quite as safe as the

regulators and manufacturers would have you believe. They can cause heart

failure, liver and kidney damage, and a potentially fatal muscle-wasting

disorder called rhabdomyolysis.

 

One statin, Baycol, was withdrawn in 2001 after 31 people died from drug-induced

rhabdomyolysis, while 601 further cases, and 38 deaths, were reported to the US

Food and Drug Administration.

 

So what do our ever-vigilant drug watchdogs do? Stack 'em high, and sell 'em

cheap.

 

(Source: What Doctors Don't Tell You, May 2004, and BBC, 12 May 2004).