Re: merits of generic statin drugs?

Flying Rat wrote:

willbill wrote:

iow, are any of the generic statins
really worth using?

what are the downsides? (there
surely are some?)


worth a mention that Simvastatin (Zocor) is now available in the much more highly regulated UK drug market as an over-the-counter product not needing a prescription. For OTC sales a drug needs to pass some pretty stringent criteria.

It really does depend on whether you consider it worthwhile. A minority have issues with statins, so there are side effects to watch out for. Zocor seems to be the first of the branded statins to go OTC here, as a generic (simvastatin) it is also being prescribed in preference to patented statins due to being cheaper.

http://www.consumersunion.org/pub/core_health_care/003557.html has some interesting stuff which might point you in that direction as needing to look at a simvastatin or pravastatin generic.

Ratty


nice ref!

early in the page they provide this ref:
www.CRBestBuyDrugs.org

which has current useful info on both
the statin family as well as the Ace family

also, open to all without having to
be a CR subscriber. :)

thank you very much

bill t1 since '57
.