Frustratingly, even the most respected filters of scientific information about statins can contradict themselves and contradict one another. Questions abound about these drugs, and people want and need clear answers:

• Who should take statins and under what circumstances?
• Do statins actually reduce heart attacks and other coronary events?
• How much unbiased (that is, not drug company funded) research has really been done on statin health claims?
• What side effects do statins really cause and under what circumstances?
• How many “pro-statin” and “anti-statin” studies have been replicated? How thorough were those trials and studies? Who funded them?
• Is the goal of statin therapy (to reduce cholesterol levels) even a worthy one, if the malevolent cholesterol hypothesis is wrong?
• Given that both LDL number and particle seem to matter… how does Lipitor impact the various classes of LDL?
• Do statins have other salutatory effects (some experts suggest that they can have anti-inflammatory properties) that could account for positive health outcomes? In other words, perhaps the “cholesterol lowering” properties of these drugs are a red herring. The drugs work not because of their effect on cholesterol, per se, but because they do other “good things” to the body.
• Given that the industry is already such a massive money-maker for so many companies, if the critics of statin drugs are correct, what should be done to reform the statin industry and the pharmaceutical industry as a whole?
• What would happen to pharmaceutical companies if doctors suddenly stopped advising their patients, en masse, to take these drugs?
• How should doctors be re-educated?
• Could better dietary therapies (and other treatments) be more effective at reducing disease related mortality?

The answers to these questions could have deep ramifications not only for people victimized by Lipitor side effects but also for the medical industry, for pharmaceutical companies, for regulatory agencies, and for our nutrition and dietary establishments.

For insight into your legal options — i.e. whether or not you may have a Lipitor case — call the Davis & Crump team at 800-277-0300.