Bad Pharma And The Statin Wars - Forbes

It’s been amusing to watch former Pfizer executive John LaMattina try to pick apart Ben Goldacre’s new book, Bad Pharma,  a powerful indictment of the industry in which LaMattina used to work. This is not the occasion to get into the details of this battle, but as an aside let me just say that I would advise any representatives of the pharmaceutical industry to think very carefully before choosing to take on Goldacre. John LaMattina What I want to focus on here is an assertion, accepted by both Goldacre and LaMattina, that is simply mistaken. LaMattina’s latest post is a response to a brief statement by Goldacre in his book that there has never been a head-to-head clinical trial comparing statins. Both writers accept this statement as a fact. I think it is very curious that neither Goldacre not LaMattina remember the PROVE-IT TIMI 22 trial published in NEJM in 2004. This trial compared pravastatin (Pravachol, Bristol Myers Squibb) with atorvastatin (Lipitor, Pfizer). I’m particularly surprised that LaMattina doesn’t remember it because it turned out to be a huge, unexpected boon for his company, despite the fact that it was sponsored by a rival. I won’t get into all the complex medical and scientific issues here, but the history is fascinating: At the time Pfizer’s Lipitor was dominating the rapidly growing, astonishingly lucrative statin marketplace, despite the complete absence of any trials with ...
Source: PharmaGossip - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs