Controversy over the aggressive new cholesterol guidelines for kids. Can this open the door to a new demographic for Pharma?
I stand in awe. Despite admitting "not 'a whole lot' of data on pediatric use of cholesterol-lowering drugs, recent research showed that the drugs were generally safe for children" and that "average total cholesterol levels as well as LDL and HDL cholesterol have remained stable, while triglyceride levels have dropped, based on data collected from 1988 to 2000" it seems we have an "epidemic" of hypercholesterolemia that now requires drug therapy:
The nation’s pediatricians are recommending wider cholesterol screening for children and more aggressive use of cholesterol-lowering drugs starting as early as the age of 8 in hopes of preventing adult heart problems.
The new guidelines were to be issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday.
I can see it now: a young, overweight teenager with a family history of heart disease is placed on a statin drug. She later becomes pregnant.
Oops.
Given the unknown implications of statins in pregnancy, one wonders if we should know more before promulgating such far-reaching recommendations.
Addendum 8 Jul 2008: Statins for kids: the New York Times reconsiders.
Tom
If anyone doesn't realize by now that the American Academy of Pediatrics is unduly influenced by Pharamaceutical companies then this should be a wake up call. Putting kids on statins???? Stop the insanity! BTW, don't worry about your own kids. The first kids they put on stuff like this are kids in foster care, children of illegal immigrants, poor kids who get medicare. Then, when they can't make anymore money there they move on to the parents of middle class kids.
One of the main backers of this insane idea to put children on statins is Nicolas Stettler University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
His list of pharmaceutical companies that he's either a consultant for or receives funding/expenses from is so extensive I can't list it here but you can find them all in the following AAP journal Article.
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/117/2/544.pdf
If you click on the PDF version and then go down to the 12th page of the PDF (listed as p. 2071) you will see an extensive list much longer than the
other co-authors.
Follow the money trail and you will see Eli Lilly all over the place. They set up phoney "grass roots" groups for "feel good" causes so they can pump more drugs into children. Since Columbia University's TeenScreen was initiated Cymbalta sales to kids between 8 and 13 have skyrocketed. The fact that TeenScreen has a 60% false positve rate doesn't seem to cause any of these greedy doctors concern.
Type in "teenscreen suicide legislative update beardog.net" on Google and you'll find all the legislative updates from Eli Lilly's "Grass Roots" TeenScreen lobbyist group