The numbers came from the Fortune Magazine article cited
below, and are for 2002. I would be astonished if the
numbers were not significantly higher now.
In the article they give both pieces of the puzzle:
Lipitor had 42% of the statin market share in 2002 Lipitor
had 44 million people world wide taking the drug in 2002
If 44,000,000 = 42% of statin patients, you can readily
estimate 100%.
You can also readily estimate the 2% population with adverse
effects that the statin industry admits to on the
physician's information (all statins have some of the
adverse effects in common).
Similarly, if a researcher not funded by the industry is
reporting a 15% incidence of significant cognitive adverse
effects, and the industry is admitting to 2% (per adverse
effect), you can easily estimate the population within that
range. You can also logically conclude that the estimates
are not that dissimilar, given that Dr. Golomb referred to
a class of cognitive adverse effects, while the industry
labeling identifies multiple individual cognitive effects
at ~2% each (totalling to a number much closer to Dr.
Golomb's number).
The article: PFIZER The $10 Billion Pill Hold the fries,
please. Lipitor, the cholesterol-lowering drug, has become
the bestselling pharmaceutical in history. Here's how Pfizer
did it. FORTUNE Monday, January 6, 2003 By John Simons
According to the article: "In 2002, Lipitor achieved
estimated sales of $7.4 billion while commanding a 42%
market share in this class of drugs, known as statins. Its
closest rival, Merck's Zocor, held 32% of the market."
"Last year some 44 million people around the world lowered
their cholesterol by taking daily doses of the drug he
invented 17 years ago, a chemical compound called
atorvastatin calcium." ("he" refers to Bruce Roth, vice
president of chemistry at Pfizer's Ann Arbor laboratories)
<[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:You've been using the figure of "106 million" statin users
to bolster your claim of huge numbers of people affected
by side effects. If I remember correctly, you got that
number from the WSJ..?
Zee just posted an atricle that contains the following:
"It is estimated on the basis of the criteria in the
national guidelines that 36 million people in the United
States should be taking a statin, but only 11 million are
currently being treated. Worldwide the discrepancy is even
more staggering; more than 200 million people meet the
criteria for treatment, but fewer than 25 million take
statins, wrote Dr. Eric J. Topol (search) in an editorial
accompanying the study in the New England Journal of
Medicine."
I have read this "25 million worldwide" figure elsewhere.
Can you please clarify?
L.
