USA TODAY - Vytorin, Zetia should be drugs of last resort, panel urges
CHICAGO — The blockbuster drugs Vytorin and Zetia should be used only after all other cholesterol-lowering drugs fail until research proves that the medications work, a panel of heart specialists recommended here Sunday.
The panel, convened by the American College of Cardiology, based its assessment on detailed evidence from a controversial study, released Sunday, showing that Vytorin worked no better than a statin drug now sold as a cheap generic.
“There is absolutely no difference … between the two treatment groups,” said lead investigator John Kastelein of the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam at the group’s annual scientific session.
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The panel’s spokesman, Harlan Krumholz of Yale University, said: “Our strongest recommendation is that people need to go back to statins. … If you were put on this drug before you were fully treated on a statin, you should go back.”
The study’s results also were released online in the New …
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