Pretty soon we are going to see a major marketing campaign by AstraZeneca for their drug Crestor. Crestor is not new but their plan is. Ever since the JUPITER trial came out there is evidence that this statin may prevent heart disease in healthy people. The FDA has now given clearance for doctors to put a male patient older than 50 or a female patient older than 60 on it if he or she has normal cholesterol but at least one risk factor (smoker, HTN, etc.). There is some debate out this, however, due to other risk factors just associated with statins. The NYT just put out a piece on this whole topic. The cost for this would plan would be astronomical. Five-hundred people would need to be treated with Crestor for a year to avoid one survivable heart attack. That would cost $638,000. Hmmm, do we, as a country, have the money for that? If so, why not put the stuff in the water. Heck, we can add some Zoloft while we are at it. Anything else?
This is the dawning of the age of Aquar...er....Crestor.
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