This is one drug that may be more
dangerous than all the statins. Although the two drug companies will
deny it, it is expected that type 2 diabetes will become more
prevalent for those using this drug.
Amgen and Sanofi/Regeneron are expected
to rake in many billions (yes, a B), but they need to find the
patients who will take the drug. None of the current members of our
support group has been contacted or has had the suggestion to
consider this drug. I don't think any are considering it, but I
could be wrong. Several of us have stated we will not.
To help find these patients, a central
strategy of the companies involves giving hundreds of millions of
dollars to a whole host of non-profit medical groups, commercial
companies, and individual physician experts.
Amgen and Sanofi/Regeneron make the two
newly approved cholesterol drugs -- evolocumab (Repatha) and
alirocumab (Praluent). These companies are fueling an explosion of
new programs, some of which utilize innovative data-mining techniques
to gather massive amounts of data from new sources. If these
programs work as intended, they will likely identify large numbers of
new patients who are candidates for the expensive drugs. How many
will be marginal patients remains to be determined, but with money as
stake, the numbers will probably be more than expected.
“The sheer size and scope of these
programs are not generally known. The activities funded by industry
fall across the entire spectrum of basic and clinical research,
continuing medical education for physicians, patient education, and
support for not-for-profit groups and patient advocacy groups. Of
course, the companies are also spending millions of dollars on all
the more traditional sales and marketing avenues. The financial
tsunami will undoubtedly help secure the close bond between the
medical establishment, patients, and industry.”
People with familial
hypercholesterolemia (FH) are the best early candidates for the new
drugs. The vast majority of people with FH have never been
diagnosed, and FH has not been on the radar screen of most
physicians. Many of the new initiatives are designed to find these
currently hidden patients.
Remember that the long-term clinical
benefits with these drugs will not be known for another few years.
Also not mentioned are the harmful side effects. These are not
complete as of yet and some of them may be severe, especially in the
elderly. There could be many problems from overuse of the drugs, the
mistaken diagnosis of FH, an inflated perception of risk in some
patients, or a lowered threshold for treatment.
There is talk about statin intolerance
and once the PCSK9 inhibitors were approved, statin intolerance
became a hot topic. Among people in the medical community the
manufactured explosion of interest in the statin intolerance is
widely known. Most in the medical community do not consider this
controversial and it is something everyone knows and talks about, but
seldom in public.
“In 2014, Amgen gave money to the
American College of Cardiology (ACC) to support a new program called
LDL: Address the Risk. An unusual and unique product of the program
is the ACC Statin Intolerance App, for iPhone and Android, that "uses
clinical guidelines and best practices to help" doctors
evaluate, manage, and treat statin intolerance.”
For the new drugs, all you need to do
is follow the money. This will show you what is happening in the
medical community where everyone is reaching for their unearned share
of the largess.
Read the full article here and a
commentary by Dr. Malcolm Kendrick here.
No comments:
Post a Comment