Healthy Skepticism Library item: 14480

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Dobson R.
Atorvastatin advertising misled over benefits for women, study claims
BMJ 2008 Oct 22; 337:a2209 epub ahead of print
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/337/oct22_1/a2209?papetoc

Abstract:

Advertising of the world’s best selling drug failed to disclose the absence of benefits for women, who should be entitled to compensation to recoup the costs of treatment, claim experts in epidemiology and law in a new analysis.

They argue that unqualified claims of protection against heart attacks made in advertisements for the lipid lowering drug atorvastatin (which is made by Pfizer and sold as Lipitor) may be misleading and that the advertising raises concerns about the way the US Food and Drug Administration regulates drugs (Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 2008;5:507-50, doi:10.1111/j.1740-1461.2008.00132.x)

The authors, Theodore Eisenberg, a professor of law at Cornell Law School, and Martin Wells, professor of clinical epidemiology at Cornell University Weill Medical College, claim that a substantial portion of the multibillion dollar market in statins may be made up of users for whom the drugs offer no benefit.

They add that remedies . . .