Cholesterol Guidelines Are Changed, But Will Prescribing Rise?

In a move that will greatly alter the use of the cholesterol-lowering pills known as statins, the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology have released new guidelines that change the calculus for prescribing these medicines. To the extent the changes will generate more prescriptions and, therefore, more revenue for the pharmaceutical industry, however, is unclear. The biggest change dispenses with the idea that people with a specific cholesterol level should automatically be given treatment and puts an end to the notion of treating patients until their cholesterol level is lowered to a specific target, which greatly increased prescribing and helped propel several medicines into blockbuster sellers. Instead, the guidelines create four categories for recommending treatment: patients who have cardiovascular disease; those with high LDL, or bad, cholesterol of 190 or more; patients with Type 2 diabetes who are between 40 and 75 years old, and patients with a risk of having a heart attack or stroke is at least 7.5 percent in the next 10 years and are also between 45 and 70 years old (here are the guidelines) Previously, physicians were guided to consider a risk of heart attack or stroke of 20 percent for patients. The new guidelines also devised a new way of calculating the 10-year risk, which also counts strokes as well as heart attacks. The new method, which replaced a calculator based on the Framingham Heart Study, could mean that more people will be c...
Source: Pharmalot - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs