Posts Tagged 'Pfizer'

Study: Risks from cholesterol drugs higher than thought

A recent study indicates that the number of people suffering side effects after taking the cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins is higher than previously reported, according to NPR.

Researchers who conducted the study, published in Annals of Internal Medicine, looked at more than 100,000 people who’d been prescribed statins from 2000 through 2008 at two academic medical centers. They found that 17 percent of patients taking the pills reported side effects, ...

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Researchers say statins are over-prescribed

Researchers at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor have published the results of a survey that concluded many doctors are too quick to prescribe the cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins.

A Reuters story on the findings quotes Dr. Franz Messerli, who runs the hypertension program at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in New York City, as saying: “Many physicians are trigger happy, and do just prescribe a statin, which obviously is not ...

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Drug-maker to resume atorvastatin sales in U.S. after recall

The Indian company Ranbaxy will resume production of its generic version of the anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor in the United States, according to a Reuters story.

The company had recalled the drug, called atorvastatin, in November after particles of glass were found in certain lots.

The original Lipitor, manufactured by Pfizer Inc., has also been the source of some safety concerns.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has added warnings to the labels of ...

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Study says statins increase risk of kidney failure

A new study by Canadian researchers found that strong doses of the anti-cholesterol drugs called statins put patients at risk of potentially deadly kidney problems, The Daily Telegraph reports.

The researchers, from the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research in Quebec, said that taking high doses of atorvastatin — better known by its brand name Lipitor — simvastatin or rosuvastatin increases the risk of being hospitalized with a condition called acute ...

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Cholesterol drug linked to serious side effects

A study linked the cholesterol drug Tredaptive to serious side effects that included development of diabetes, gastrointestinal problems, bleeding and infections, according to a Reuters report.

Manufacturer Merck had already decided not to sell the drug in the United States and to take it off the market in dozens of other countries, after findings that it failed to prevent heart attacks, strokes, death and other complications in heart patients.

Tredaptive isn’t ...

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Man blames health problems on statins

A story in the British newspaper Daily Mail deals with mounting concerns about serious side effects related to the popular anti-cholesterol drugs known as statins. The story includes a profile of a Welsh man who began taking statins for high cholesterol at the age of 57. Soon afterward, he began suffering from side effects he blames on the drug.

According to the story, he had troubling bouts of memory loss.

The story quotes him as saying: “I was constantly losing my thread ...

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