Pharma's slam-dunk in the UK

[Brian C.]

*http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/27/nheart127.xml

Also, we are the only developed country that permits over-the-counter sale of a statin (simvastatin).

Brian.

[sos_group_owner]

Re: over-the-counter sale of a statin (simvastatin)

People in the UK should leave OTC simvastatin on the shelves. That will be the only way the providers will get the message. Totally irresponsible to have such a dangerous drug easily available.

Fran

[Ray Holder]

NICE are about to issue a draft of their lipid lowering guidelines, which can be accessed on their website, they make rather sorry reading, and are advocating that doctors look at their patient records to find those who meet the criteria for statin treatment, and pressing them to take it. The question of side effects is just "Those intolerant of statins"

I hope to send a few large broadsides to them, and have found some helpful academic pages to back up my arguments. *www.neuro.wustl.edu/NEUROMUSCULAR/index.html has a link to Q10 deficiency on its home page, showing statins as a culprit, and putting carnitine deficiency into the search panel on the home page will give access to a page, where a little further down is MADD, said to be "allellic with Q10 deficiency and showing the need for Q10 and carnitine to treat it.
I also found on the Merck site *www.merck.com an opportunity to see carnitine deficiency, with carnitine supplementation advised, but no mention of the statin cause.

Google brings up several possibilities from carnitine deficiency, and I am working my way through them, but it's getting a bit late for me now and as my carnitine level is getting low, I must give it a rest for the time being.

Hopefully some material from really reputable sources will emerge.

Ray

[Brian C.]

Pfizer's patent on Lipitor is due to run out in 2010. They will spend what it takes to keep the waters muddy until then.

Brian.