Cholesterol-Cutting Statin Drugs Raise Cataract, Kidney Risk in U.K. Study
Drugs to lower cholesterol and prevent heart disease, taken by millions of people worldwide, increase the risk of cataracts, kidney failure, muscle pain and liver dysfunction, a study of more than 2 million Britons found.
The findings paint a fuller picture of the long-term risks of medications known as statins, such as Pfizer Inc.’s Lipitor, the world’s top-selling drug, and AstraZeneca Plc’s Crestor, the researchers said. The study, released today by the British Medical Journal, failed to validate a range of potential benefits, other than lowering cholesterol, attributed to statins and quantified some risks.
The study also confirmed the benefits of the drugs, which generated $35.3 billion worldwide in 2009, according to IMS Health Inc., based in Norwalk, Connecticut, which tracks pharmaceutical sales. For every 10,000 people taking a statin, there were about 271 fewer cases of heart disease, 8 fewer cases of esophageal cancer, 307 extra patients with cataracts, 23 additional patients with acute kidney failure and 74 extra patients with liver dysfunction, the researchers estimated.
“At national level, our study is likely to be useful for policy and planning purposes,” said researchers led by Julia Hippisley-Cox, professor of epidemiology at the University of Nottingham in the U.K. “Given that statins are already among the most widely prescribed medicines and that their use is likely to continue to increase, both their intended and their unintended effects” must be identified, they said.
No Cancer Protection
Researchers were unable to confirm suggestions in earlier studies that statins had the ability to protect against Parkinson’s disease, blood clots deep in the legs, rheumatoid arthritis, fractures and dementia, they said. The research confirmed previous studies that found no clear link between statins and a reduced risk of most cancers, they said.
The analysis tracked 2 million patients at 368 medical practices in England and Wales from 2002 to 2008. The risks were seen with all the statins, emerged in the first year of use and persisted as long as patients took the medicines, the study found. The danger of cataracts abated within a year of patients stopping the drugs. The risk of the other conditions returned to normal levels within three years, the researchers said.
“For health-care providers who prescribe statins, and their patients, the present findings are reassuring,” wrote Alawi Alsheikh-Ali, a cardiologist at the Institute of Cardiac Sciences at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City in Abu Dhabi, and Richard Karas, executive director of the molecular cardiology research institute at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, in an editorial.
Benefits ‘Outweigh’ Risk
“Statin use is not associated with cancer, severe muscle toxicity is rare, and liver abnormalities seem to be reversible,” they wrote, saying the aim of the drugs is to prevent irreversible heart attacks and strokes. “When used according to current guidelines, the benefits of statins outweigh their risks.”
While clinical trials used to approve the drugs provide excellent data on their effectiveness, the research yields little information on long-term or rare risks, the authors said. The studies tend to include younger and healthier people so the findings don’t always apply to the general population, they said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Michelle Fay Cortez in London at mcortez@bloomberg.net
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