SPIRALLING healthcare costs will be a big issue in the US presidential election. So here’s a number for the candidates to debate: $1.5 billion. That’s the additional sum spent on cholesterol-lowering drugs in the US in 2006, thanks to the marketing of a drug that has not been shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Cynthia Jackevicius of the Western University of ÎçÒ¹¸£Àû1000¼¯ºÏ Sciences in Pomona, California, and colleagues analysed US and Canadian prescriptions of ezetimibe, a drug that inhibits the uptake of cholesterol.
Ezetimibe was launched in the US as Zetia in 2002, and in Canada under the…
