So this blind squirrel (me) isn't very good at finding acorns. I completely overlooked & missed the significance of a randomized controlled trial (HPS2-THRIVE) published early last week in the European Heart Journal in which the authors noted that the addition of niacin + laropiprant (novel anti-flushing agent) to simvastatin +/- ezetimibe increased the risk of myopathy, especially in those participants of Chinese descent. To the authors' credit, of those 38,369 participants who were able to tolerate the drug for at least a month, 3 out of 4 were then followed for 4yrs.
What made me dig for this article was the announcement yesterday at the American College of Cardiology's annual meeting regarding the study's findings: increase in diabetic complications, increase in new onset diabetes, increase in infections, gastrointestinal complications & bleeding, and most importantly, no statistically significant benefit in vascular outcomes. In other words, when it comes to niacin + laropiprant, risk exceeds benefit.
Merck, the manufacturer of Tredaptive branded niacin + laropiprant, must've known the gig was up because it stopped selling the drug outside of the US back in January, 2 months ago, after these negative results were announced in December. Bottom line: I don't think niacin is dead (yet) but niacin + laropiprant certainly doesn't look too healthy.
Tweet
This site complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information: verify here.
No comments:
Post a Comment