{"id":7404,"date":"2008-06-04T12:10:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-04T12:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pharma-mkting.com\/bad-news-about-good-cholesterol-adds-to\/"},"modified":"2019-02-21T01:24:48","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T01:24:48","slug":"bad-news-about-good-cholesterol-adds-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/bad-news-about-good-cholesterol-adds-to\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad News About “Good” Cholesterol Adds to Need for DTC Education"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>“‘Good’ cholesterol that scientists have thought helped unclog arteries had no effect on heart disease in a study, casting doubt on a theory drugmakers have spent more than $1 billion pursuing,” says an article on Bloomberg.com (see “Why Pfizer Flopped: Good Cholesterol, not so good, says study<\/a>“).<\/p>\n

Add this to results from the Vytorin\/Zetia study that failed to prove that lowering ‘bad’ cholesterol does not seem to lessen buildup of plaque on arteries and you seem to have a “perfect storm” that may eventually sink the whole anti-cholesterol drug market!<\/p>\n

Maybe I am not a good focus group of one, but in response to all this bad news about the failings of statins and other cholesterol-lowering drugs, I have done the following:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Stopped taking my cholesterol drugs (Pravachol and Zetia) and focused instead on OTC products like Omega-III fish oil, niacin, and red yeast rice (which I also recently stopped because I suspect it gave me “geographic tongue<\/a>!”), and<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  2. I’ve had discussions with friends and relatives who are obsessed with their cholesterol numbers — are they focusing on numbers rather than true cardiovascular health?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If millions of other people like me out there are undergoing the same kind of soul searching questioning of conventional pharma wisdom — yes, I know, an obvious oxymoron — then there is trouble ahead for many pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer who are investing a lot into getting those cholesterol numbers down, but no so much on improving real outcomes.<\/p>\n

    At the least, it seems obvious to me that anti-cholesterol drug marketers can no longer focus exclusively on cholesterol numbers as Pfizer once did in those classic Lipitor commercials showing a skier with LDL (“bad cholesterol”) numbers on his back!<\/p>\n

    Crestor marketers have already taken a different approach (see, for example, “Crestor Print Ad Touts Plaque Buildup Advantage<\/a>“), which they may have been more motivated to do in order to capitalize on Vytorin’s misfortunes than to actually educate consumers (see “Exciting News: FDA approves new use for CRESTOR<\/a>“). I’m still waiting, however, for that 150-second Vytorin commercial (see “Make Way for the 150-Second Vytorin TV Ad<\/a>“).<\/p>\n

    BTW, when I stopped taking my Rx medications, my cholesterol level has shot up, which prompted me to go back on pravastatin, the generic form of Pravachol. It seems that even I cannot ignore the power of numbers, albeit numbers that may have no relationship to outcomes!<\/p>\n

    P.S. Something else that my experience may presage: a trend to a more rapid switch to generics, which was already happening as a result of the Vytorin flap. It’s a good compromise: If I am uncertain about the benefit of a drug, but I can’t ignore numbers, then why pay more than I should to lower those numbers? I’ll take the generic, thank you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    “‘Good’ cholesterol that scientists have thought helped unclog arteries had no effect on heart disease in a study, casting doubt on a theory drugmakers have spent more than $1 billion pursuing,” says an article on Bloomberg.com (see “Why Pfizer Flopped: Good Cholesterol, not so good, says study“). Add this to results from the Vytorin\/Zetia study […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[335,543,86,494,108,822],"topic":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBad News About "Good" Cholesterol Adds to Need for DTC Education - Pharma Marketing Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/bad-news-about-good-cholesterol-adds-to\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bad News About "Good" Cholesterol Adds to Need for DTC Education - Pharma Marketing Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"“‘Good’ cholesterol that scientists have thought helped unclog arteries had no effect on heart disease in a study, casting doubt on a theory drugmakers have spent more than $1 billion pursuing,” says an article on Bloomberg.com (see “Why Pfizer Flopped: Good Cholesterol, not so good, says study“). 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