The anti-cholesterol drug Pravachol can now advertise that it lowers by a third the risk of a first heart attack in otherwise healthy people with high cholesterol.
The Food and Drug Administration approved a label change last week that will allow Pravachol to become the first anti-cholesterol drug to be designated as reducing the risk of a first heart attack. Up to one-third of first heart attacks are fatal - and survivors are five to seven times more likely to suffer another.Manufacturer Bristol-Myers Squibb was formally unveiling the new label today.
Other drugs aggressively advertise that they lower the risk of second heart attacks and death from heart disease, yet just a fourth of heart patients take cholesterol medicine. Half of U.S. adults are thought to have cholesterol levels over 200, when the risk begins to climb.
But doctors have long debated how risky high cholesterol is when it's the only symptom of heart disease in otherwise healthy patients.