Wednesday, September 05, 2007

"Rost Busts Pfizer and Journalists"

Nice to see that the real story is getting some traction.

Clin Psych writes in Rost Busts Pfizer and Journalists:

But that has not stopped the so-called health media from running with the story from the Lipitor saves, generics kill angle (see several sources on Rost's site). Here's more fuel for the fire:

"The bottom line on this particular study is that the data tell us such switching may not be without consequences," said Michael Berelowitz, senior vice
president of Pfizer's global medical division, in a phone interview."



With all due respect, Mr. Berelowitz, it would appear that you are either ignorant on this point or you are lying. An analogy in the mental health field would be if patients who tried Effexor and then switched to a generic tricyclic antidepressant (say, imipramine) were found to have worse depression outcomes than patients who stayed on Effexor. Duh! Again, maybe people who dropped Effexor are treatment-resistant and/or had more severe depression -- medications don't work as well for them. So it would be a pretty stupid comparison to say that those who switched antidepressants were acting dangerously by switching medications, wouldn't it?

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