What a mess our healthcare system is in. In an effort to extend its patent by 6 months, Lipitor is releasing a chewable statin for children. By bringing children into the picture and extending the patent, Pfizer will earn several billion in additonal revenue from the drug in America and Europe.
In addition, there has also been a push for school cholesterol screenings to find children “in need of treatment”. So instead of spending money on improving school lunches and purchasing exercise equipment to prevent things like high cholesterol, diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease, we would rather have the healthcare system pay ten times that to put a child on a statin drug.
I acknowledge that there are diseases out there that can only be controlled with precription drugs. For example, statin drugs and familial hypercholesterolemia. No amount of diet and exercise is going to reduce this groups cholesterol to normal levels. Giving otherwise healthy children statin drugs(chewable, like candy) is like repairing a crack in the Hoover Dam with Duck Tape.
Everyone’s health situation is unique, but we need to start taking responsibility for our own health. It is unfortunate that some companies how so much money and power that they can corrupt government, policy, and research for thier own benefit. Afterall, it I gave you 1 million dollars and 3 years work for a study on my drugs effectiveness, what are your results going to be? And the Peer-reviewed journal that publishes it, well, I’m going to buy millions of dollars worth or reprints of that article to distribute to doctors worldwide.
Short story, don’t fall victim to the corruption, do your own research, talk to a doctor you trust.
Resources
http://www.anh-usa.org/children-are-being-exploited-to-extend-pharmaceutical-patents/
Oh, and did I mention, you can’t live without cholesterol. It is a good molecule, very necessary for cell walls and signaling between parts of your body. Also, total cholesterol means little, the amount of HDL compared to LDL is much more important.