CardioExchange Archive

June 4th, 2013

Study Finds More Musculoskeletal Problems in People Who Take Statins

Larry Husten, PHD

An observational study published in JAMA Internal Medicine provides new evidence suggesting that people who take statins are more likely to develop musculoskeletal problems. Ishak Mansi and colleagues analyzed data from 6,967 statin users and an equal number of propensity-matched nonusers who were active-duty soldiers, veterans, and their families in the San Antonio Military Area. They found that the […]

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April 2nd, 2013

Lifelong Statin Sentence Now Includes Furloughs

Larry Husten, PHD

Although the benefits of statins are among the best documented in all of medicine, continuous lifelong statin therapy is not always easy to achieve in clinical practice. Now a new retrospective study suggests that although clinical events causing temporary cessation of statin therapy occur often, most of these patients are later able to resume statin therapy. […]

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March 22nd, 2013

Europe and U.S. Diverge on Two New Drugs

Larry Husten, PHD

The U.S. FDA and Europe’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) have taken opposite views of two important and controversial new cardiovascular drugs. Although earlier this month the FDA rejected — for the second time — an ACS indication for the oral anticoagulant rivaroxaban (Xarelto), CHMP announced today that it had adopted a positive opinion for the […]

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February 5th, 2013

Back To The Future: Resurrected Data From 1960s Trial Might Impact Contemporary Dietary Fat Debate

Larry Husten, PHD

In an exceedingly strange turn of events, data from a clinical trial dating from the 1960s, long thought to be lost, has now been resurrected and may contribute important new information to the very contemporary controversy over recommendations about dietary fat composition. The American Heart Association has long urged people to increase their consumption of polyunsaturated […]

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January 15th, 2013

Large Meta-Analysis Finds No Harm Associated with Eggs

Larry Husten, PHD

No food has had more ups and downs over the last century or so than the common egg. Following a long period in which eggs were ubiquitous and highly regarded, eggs fell from favor with the rise of concerns over cholesterol. Currently, the American Heart Association recommends that people restrict dietary cholesterol to 300 mg per day, which […]

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January 11th, 2013

Merck Starts to Suspend Worldwide Availability of Tredaptive

Larry Husten, PHD

In the wake of the negative HPS2-THRIVE study announced last month, Merck said today that it was beginning to suspend the worldwide availability of Tredaptive, its combination of extended-release niacin and laropiprant. Merck described its decision as being “aligned” with that of the European Medicines Agency’s  Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC), which recommended on Thursday that drugs containing extended-release niacin and laropiprant should be suspended. The drug […]

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January 9th, 2013

Niacin Therapy in the Crossfire

William Edward Boden, MD and Harlan M. Krumholz, MD, SM

William E. Boden, lead investigator of the AIM-HIGH trial, and CardioExchange’s Harlan M. Krumholz debate the current state of research on niacin therapy.

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January 4th, 2013

Why Has Niacin Therapy Failed to THRIVE?

William Edward Boden, MD and John Ryan, MD

In the wake of HPS2-THRIVE, John Ryan asks William E. Boden, lead investigator of the AIM-HIGH trial, for his perspective on niacin and other HDL-modifying therapies.

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January 3rd, 2013

Combination of Ezetimibe and Atorvastatin Back on FDA Approval Path

Larry Husten, PHD

A combination tablet containing the cholesterol-lowering drugs ezetimibe and atorvastatin is back on the path to possible FDA approval, according to Merck, which already markets Zetia (ezetimibe) and Vytorin, the combination of ezetimibe and simvastatin. Merck has repeatedly stumbled in its efforts to gain FDA approval of the proposed new drug, which has been dubbed “Son […]

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December 20th, 2012

HPS2-THRIVE: No Benefit, Signal of Harm for Niacin Therapy

Larry Husten, PHD

The largest-ever study of niacin has failed to show a clinical benefit of niacin and even found a strong signal of harm. Merck announced today that the HPS2-THRIVE (Heart Protection Study 2-Treatment of HDL to Reduce the Incidence of Vascular Events) study did not meet its primary endpoint. In that study, the combination of a statin and Merck’s niacin compound, Tredaptive, a combination of extended-release niacin and […]

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