The JUPITER study puts a whole different spin on statins in the wake of all the trash talk that went on with regard to Vytorin. But just as the media went overboard attacking the ENHANCE results, lead by Steve Nissen who called for a "moratorium" on it's use in the wake of that study, it has gone overboard in claming that the same statins they were dissing are now to be used in nearly everyone, led again by, Steve Nissen who told his Boswell, Forbes' Matt Herper, that JUPITER is “potentially a game-changer. There could be a much larger population of patients that may benefit than are currently treated."
For the record, Nissen was rejected to conduct the athero measures for ENHANCE and is now doing a study to compare Crestor, the subject of JUPITER with Lipitor, two drugs made by two companies he has done work for in the past. And this is the man who would be FDA Commissioner.
http://www.forbes.com/healthcare/forbes/2008/1117/036.html
So what are scientists saying about JUPITER?
According to Eric Topol, JUPITER shows that people with ver high C-Reactive Protein levels get a very strong benefit from Crestor. People in this study were considered to be "healthy" but in fact 40 percent had metabolic disorder, smoked or were overweight. Topol asks: Is this a CRP or a metabolic story? The JUPITER study gives doctors something new and important to discuss with patients and something that can be used to tailor treatments to the individual.
Which is why Topol raises another important issue. While the relative risk of all cause of death declined by 25 percent the absolute absolute risk was cut by 1 in 120 treated for two year period. Meanwhile 1 in 200 developed diabetes.
Topol's point is not that Crestor use or use of statins should not be expanded. Rather his take is twofold. First, we should continue our search to tailor the use and development of statins to the right pathway and markers rather than pursue a one size or one mechanism fits all approach. Second, and more subtle, it is interesting how people flip out on the relative RISKs of medicines generated by meta-analyses of people like Nissen without looking at the absolute risk relative to the benefit generated or the cost of not taking the medicine.
http://blogs.theheart.org/topolog
Similarly, attacks Sid Wolfe launched against Crestor when it was first approved about liver damage, which proved to be bogus, has probably caused more deaths due to heart disease than high LDL levels have generated since that time. That is particularly the case with African Americans who seem to have responded particularly well to Crestor. Alicia Mundy and others in the media hail Wolfe as some sort of hero. Yet it is drug companies who by spending hundreds of millions of dollars on several large clinical trials have advanced clinical practice and provided researchers with more data that can be used to personalize the treatment of heart disease.
Who are the real heroes?
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/NEJMoa0807646
For the record, Nissen was rejected to conduct the athero measures for ENHANCE and is now doing a study to compare Crestor, the subject of JUPITER with Lipitor, two drugs made by two companies he has done work for in the past. And this is the man who would be FDA Commissioner.
http://www.forbes.com/healthcare/forbes/2008/1117/036.html
So what are scientists saying about JUPITER?
According to Eric Topol, JUPITER shows that people with ver high C-Reactive Protein levels get a very strong benefit from Crestor. People in this study were considered to be "healthy" but in fact 40 percent had metabolic disorder, smoked or were overweight. Topol asks: Is this a CRP or a metabolic story? The JUPITER study gives doctors something new and important to discuss with patients and something that can be used to tailor treatments to the individual.
Which is why Topol raises another important issue. While the relative risk of all cause of death declined by 25 percent the absolute absolute risk was cut by 1 in 120 treated for two year period. Meanwhile 1 in 200 developed diabetes.
Topol's point is not that Crestor use or use of statins should not be expanded. Rather his take is twofold. First, we should continue our search to tailor the use and development of statins to the right pathway and markers rather than pursue a one size or one mechanism fits all approach. Second, and more subtle, it is interesting how people flip out on the relative RISKs of medicines generated by meta-analyses of people like Nissen without looking at the absolute risk relative to the benefit generated or the cost of not taking the medicine.
http://blogs.theheart.org/topolog
Similarly, attacks Sid Wolfe launched against Crestor when it was first approved about liver damage, which proved to be bogus, has probably caused more deaths due to heart disease than high LDL levels have generated since that time. That is particularly the case with African Americans who seem to have responded particularly well to Crestor. Alicia Mundy and others in the media hail Wolfe as some sort of hero. Yet it is drug companies who by spending hundreds of millions of dollars on several large clinical trials have advanced clinical practice and provided researchers with more data that can be used to personalize the treatment of heart disease.
Who are the real heroes?
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/NEJMoa0807646
