Veel voorgeschreven medicijn blijkt niet te werken.*
Uit een studie (clinical trial) blijkt een inmiddels veel (miljoenen keren per maand, wereldwijd) voorgeschreven
cholesterolverlagend medicijn tegen hart- en vaatziektes, vytorin of ezetimibe (merknaam Ezetrol) niet werkzaam te zijn. Door cholesterol te verlagen zou het medicijn ook plaquesvorming in de wanden van slagaders en daardoor de kans op een hartziekte moeten doen afnemen doch de resultaten van deze studie laten zien dat plaquevorming niet verminderd en zelfs
toeneemt.
De gegevens van deze studie blijken al in april 2006 bij de opdrachtgever, de fabrikant (Merck) bekend te zijn doch werden tot op heden niet gepubliceerd. Een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse cardioloog vindt het verbijsterend. Hieronder treft u een artikel aan uit de Washington Post.
A popular cholesterol-lowering drug failed to show that it can also slow the progression of heart disease, according to a long-awaited study released
Monday.
The drug, Vytorin (a combination of Zetia and Zocor), did not slow the buildup of artery-clogging plaque, nor did it reduce the thickness of plaque lining artery walls, a significant disappointment for the manufacturers.
"Obviously, we would have preferred a more favorable result," said Skip Irvine, a spokesman for Merck/Schering-Plough Pharmaceuticals, a joint venture between the two companies that markets Zetia and Vytorin.
Other experts said the findings mark a major blow for the medications.
"This is stunning," said Steven Nissen, a Cleveland Clinic cardiologist who was not involved in the research. "That's a stunning reversal for what was previously one of the fastest-growing cholesterol-lowering medications being used. This drug doesn't work. Period. It just doesn't work. ... In fact, the data on both the rate of progression of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular events are trending in the wrong direction. This is a pretty clear failure. Physicians should now stop using ezetimibe or Vytorin except as a last
resort.""
The companies disputed Nissen's conclusions, saying the study showed once again that Zetia was highly effective at lowering cholesterol levels. The companies are sponsoring another large study aimed at evaluating the drug's ability to prevent heart attacks and strokes.
Zetia was approved in 2002, and Vytorin was approved in 2004. Both quickly became popular. Doctors wrote about 18 million prescriptions for Vytorin and about 14 million for Zetia in 2006, making them among the most commonly prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs, and their popularity has continued to grow, according to IMS Health, a health care information company.
Previous studies have shown that Zetia and Vytorin are effective at lowering cholesterol, but other medications that do this have been shown to have additional benefits, such as slowing the buildup of plaque, or sometimes even shrinking it, as well as reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes and lowering mortality
rates.
The new company-sponsored study found that Vytorin was no more effective than Zocor alone in tackling plaque buildup and even indicated that those receiving Vytorin may have had slightly more
buildup. (Januari
2008)
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