Heart-to-Heart #5: GoozNews
This past week, Merrill Goozner, author of The $800 Million Pill : The Truth behind the Cost of New Drugs, wrote about blood pressure control pills. He discusses the controversial labeling of antihypertensive medications.
When it came to patients who already suffer from the various complications of untreated high blood pressure, the guidelines turned quite specific. Calcium channel blockers (can you say Norvasc?) are singularly less effective in preventing congestive heart failure. After a heart attack, you’d probably want to start a patient on a beta-blocker or a ACE (angiotensin converting enzyme) inhibitor. Suffer from recurrent strokes? Diuretics and ACE inhibitors (both classes almost entirely generic) are best. How about diabetics? They all work about the same.
[snip]
But the savvy marketing arms of the major drug companies know what’s at stake. Combine a failure to distinguish between drugs with the right to put the misleading claims of seeding trials on labels and what you’ve given them is a blank check to suggest their pricey patented drugs are superior to generic diuretics, even though the government guidelines say just the opposite. The net effect of this Guidance could be a huge setback for public health and the public purse.
Read more of Merrill’s post to gain some insight into the backroom machinations of drug companies and the FDA. Not that I necessarily ascribe to the big pharma bad point of view.
Technorati Tags: heart disease, cardiovascular disease, cvd, disease, health, hypertension, high blood pressure, fda, drug companies, big pharma
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