Zetia, Ezetimibe News

Even adults at moderate risk for developing heart disease can benefit from these medicines.

The American Heart Association says high cholesterol affects more than 30 million Americans, and two of the most popular prescription drugs used widely to treat it are in question again.

Dear Dr. Gott: Like several of your readers, I, too, suffered from painful muscle aches after taking various statin drugs for cholesterol control.

John J.P. Kastelein, M.D., Ph.D., and Michiel L. Bots, M.D., Ph.D. The use of statin therapy to reduce levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in patients who are at high risk for vascular events results in a 30 to 40% reduction in the rate of clinical events.1 However, many patients continue to be at risk.

Allen J. Taylor, M.D., Todd C. Villines, M.D., Eric J. Stanek, Pharm.D., Patrick J. Devine, M.D., Len Griffen, M.D., Michael Miller, M.D., Neil J. Weissman, M.D., and Mark Turco, M.D. ABSTRACT Background Treatment added to statin monotherapy to further modify the lipid profile may include combination therapy to either raise the high-density ...

By a margin of 0.014 mm in carotid intima-media thickness , extended-release niacin demonstrated superiority over ezetimibe as an add-on for high risk patients on long term statin therapy.

A new study brings a new blow to Zetia . In a recent study published by the New England Journal of Medicine, it appears that taking the extended release form of a common supplement, niacin, works better in reducing atherosclerotic plaque thickness than Zetia, a newer cholesterol drug that is used to specifically lower LDL cholesterol.

The use of a pharmaceutical form of the B vitamin niacin to raise HDL cholesterol levels was more effective then using the drug ezetimibe to lower LDL cholesterol levels for patients at high cardiovascular riskA who also took statins, reports a new study .

Results reported here Sunday may not put the nail in the coffin for a once wildly popular cholesterol-lowering drug, but they do put Zetia at the bottom of the list of medications that doctors will be using.

A small study is causing a big splash in the multi-billion dollar world of cholesterol treatments.

The damage, however, may be limited by the limitations of the study itself, which included data from just 208 patients and was criticized in a major medical journal.

The drug's maker, Merck & Co., didn't wait for the bad news to break. In anticipation of the findings, executives including Peter Kim, president of Merck Research Laboratories, and Richard Pasternak, Merck's head of global scientific affairs, sought to discredit the study by calling it 'flawed' and misleading in press interviews and through a ...

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., Nov. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- In the study presented today at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions in Orlando, Florida today, The Effect of Extended-release Niacin or Ezetimibe Added to Chronic Statin Therapy On Carotid Intima Media Thickness , study found that: Adding the cholesterol drug niacin to a statin improved ...

A trial showing that a form of niacin cleared arteries far better than Merck's Zetia cholesterol pill could have been disaster for the big drug maker.

In patients with high cardiovascular risk, extended-release niacin is associated with better outcomes than ezetimibe, according to a New England Journal of Medicine study released online.

Over the weekend, the results in a small cardiovascular trial came out that compared Merck's Zetia against Abbott's Niaspan .

More than 70 years ago, researchers at the University of Wisconsin were the first to use niacin, or vitamin B3, as a drug when they found it could quickly cure a horrible disease known as pellagra that began as a skin rash and led to dementia, killing thousands of people every year in rural America.

Today I read about a study that raises questions about the benefit of some cholesterol medications, and it turns out niacin was more effective than Zetia for reducing plaque-buildup in arteries.

A new study raises fresh concerns about Zetia and its cousin, Vytorin -- drugs that are still taken by millions of Americans to lower cholesterol, despite questions raised last year about how well they work.

Merck Expresses Confidence In The Efficacy And Safety Profiles Of ZETIA And VYTORIN As Effective Medicines For Managing Elevated Cholesterol November 18, 2009 At the American Heart Association meeting recently, Merck & Co., Inc.