I think that for very-high-risk people, the newly-lowered 'desirable' LDL levels are probably reasonable, but when guidelines are issued by a committee with 6 of 9 members as paid consultants of various pharmaceutical companies, that information ought to be noted more than every 3 years. (Looks like it will be in the future.)
http://my.webmd.com/content/Article/90/100818.htm?printing=true "July 15, 2004 -- Members of a government panel, which earlier this week recommended more aggressive use of statin medications for people at the highest risk of dying from heart disease, failed to disclose financial links to the companies that make the drugs, according to a story in the publication Newsday. In a Thursday interview with WebMD, the official that oversaw the panel promised to post the financial disclosures on the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's (NHLBI) web site next week. But James Cleeman, MD, strongly denies that any attempt was made to keep the public in the dark about the panelists' financial ties. Financial information was included when the panel published its original guidelines in 2001, Cleeman says, so it did not seem necessary to include it again in the newly updated version. Cleeman is the coordinator of the NHLBI's National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP). "In our minds this was a non-issue because financial disclosure is available (for everyone on the panel)," he says. "However, in the current climate we understand that it is very desirable to have things as transparent as possible. So with that in mind, we are going to put this information on the NHLBI web site... "...In the story published Thursday, Newsday reported that six of the nine panelists serving on the NCEP committee, which updated the guidelines, disclosed receiving grants or consulting fees from drug companies that make cholesterol-lowering drugs in the 2001 report... "...The revisions were endorsed by the AHA and the American College of Cardiology, each of which had a representative on the panel. Cleeman points out that the changes were reviewed by the NCEP coordinating committee and steering bodies of the other two organizations. "I would say that more than 90 people were involved in this review," he says. "Nobody is quarreling with the substance of the message. I hope the public will not be diverted from the importance of taking action to lower their LDL cholesterol by this." But Curt Furberg, MD, who is a former head of clinical trials at NHLBI, said he is concerned about the amount of paid consulting being done by researchers who are supposed to have the public's best interest in mind. "I don't think NHLBI has a good track record of disclosing conflict of interest," he tells WebMD. "Many of these ties to drug companies are too close for comfort. There is just too much spin these days in the interpretation of research, and the spin has financial overtones." Every study/paper published in reputable medical journals is supposed to include any financial ties of the authors to the makers of the subject drug/device; I think it's quite reasonable for the same standards to be applied to guidelines that affect millions of people. Debbi __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - 50x more storage than other providers! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
