Over-the-counter cholesterol drug coming?

Although this is a good news for those who have high LDL (Bad) cholesterol. I don't encourage people to take any pills so as to prevent any long term side effect.

In reference to the chinese herbs sutra, the following Drinks would help to reduce the LDL cholesterol level:

Pamerlo Juice
Celery & carot Juice
Soy Drinks
Grapefruit Juice
Tomato Juice
Red Tea
Green Tea
Red Wine
Purple Grape Juice


Over-the-counter cholesterol drug coming?
By Julie Appleby, USA TODAY
Merck next month will make its second try for approval to sell cholesterol drug Mevacor without a prescription.

If the Food and Drug Administration approves, cholesterol drugs would become the third type of drug to switch from prescription to over-the counter status in the USA. Bristol-Myers Squibb said this month that it also intends to seek non-prescription status for cholesterol drug Pravachol.

Unlike the other two categories, allergy pills and stomach acid remedies, cholesterol-lowering drugs are aimed at a chronic condition that is without symptoms. Cholesterol drugs, the No. 1-selling category in the USA at $14 billion in sales last year, also raise the risk of liver, kidney and muscle problems.

The switch must be approved by the FDA. An advisory committee will consider Merck's application on Jan. 13-14. Nearly four years ago, an FDA advisory committee recommended against allowing Mevacor to be sold without a prescription. Members said then that they wanted more information about whether consumers would use the drug properly.

Merck says it now has a study showing that consumers can make those decisions. Mevacor, of a class of drugs called statins, went on the market in 1987 and is no longer under patent protection. Several companies sell a generic equivalent, known as lovastatin. Merck's other cholesterol drug, Zocor, whose patent expires in 2006, won the United Kingdom's approval in August for sales directly to consumers.

"For some people, it's a large shift in their thinking to having consumers treat themselves," says Ed Hemwall, vice president of Johnson & Johnson/Merck, a joint marketing venture.

But, he says, heart disease remains the nation's top killer — and many patients haven't sought treatment for cholesterol, one risk factor.

Still, some doctors are skeptical.

"I think it is a very bad idea," says Brian Strom, a medical doctor and professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Over-the-counter drugs are meant for short-term conditions that patients can diagnose themselves, he says. "High cholesterol has none of those things." Read More...
USATODAY.com - Over-the-counter cholesterol drug coming?