Soon after the cholesterol-lowering drug, Baycol (cerivastatin,) was withdrawn due to a rare and serious muscle-damaging side effect, competing drug companies moved in to snare some new customers. Full- page ads began appearing in newspapers urging people who have stopped taking Baycol to ask their doctors about going on another drug in the same class called "statins." These include Pravachol (pravastatin), Zocor (simvastatin), Lipitor (atorvastatin), and Lescol (fluvastatin).
Bayer A.G., the German pharmaceutical and chemical conglomerate, voluntarily withdrew its drug, Baycol, last August after 31 confirmed deaths had occurred in people who had been taking the drug. All died of a rare condition called rhabdomyolysis, which causes a break down of muscle tissue. At the time, news reports acknowledged that other statin drugs have also been linked to rare cases of muscle cell damage, but the FDA found the problem to be much more common with Baycol than with other drugs in the same class.
This FDA contention was explored in a recent issue of The Medical Letter, a physician publication with no drug advertising. It concluded that there is no good evidence that any one of the statin drugs is less likely than any other to cause rhabdomyolysis. The risk, though rare, appears to increase with higher doses of statins, and may be greater in patients with renal failure, according to The Medical Letter. Doctors are advised to tell their patients to promptly report unexplained muscle pain, tenderness or weakness, especially if they are taking a statin and gemfibrozil (another anti-cholesterol drug) together.
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Maryann Napoli is the associate director of the Center for Medical Consumers in New York City.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Center for Medical Consumers, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group
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