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New "me-too" beta blocker dissed by experts

The Wall Street Journal health blog pokes fun at Bystolic, the newly approved beta blocker from Forest Laboratories and Mylan Laboratories, as the ultimate "me-too" drug. It's number 19 in the list of beta blockers now available in the U.S. The developers counter by saying that the drug has "placebo-like" side effects, making compliance easier. One Mayo Clinic expert cautions the numbers are coming from small studies, and with Glaxo's Coreg going generic, he's going with the lower cost drug.

- read the blog item

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Comments

I have been following drug advertisements for quite a while. I find serious side effects that can be fatal seem to be more acceptable these days to FDA and, consequently, Doctors. The percentage of patients that may be susceptible to any one side effect may be very small, however, the total number of patients with unacceptible side effects (including fatalities, or suicidal thoughts) seems to me to be within a physician's zone of "the risk of doing business". This may not be within the patient's "zone of acceptibility" and I have no doubt had these side effects been explained to the patient they would reject many of these drugs unless they absolutely could not live with the problem they were being treated for. Ultimately, it is the patient's choice, therefore, an explanation is in order before a prescription is given because it can not be returned if the drug does not work. This is a perfect indication for the use of samples to relieve the expense of drug failure.

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