compared to brand-name cholesterol drugs like Pfizer's Lipitor, which sells for $2 or more a day.

Statin drugs are among the nation's best-selling medications, bringing in $16 billion in 2005. Part of the reason behind the growing popularity of statin drugs may be due to changes in the National Cholesterol Education Program committee guidelines for treating cholesterol back in 1993, and again in 2004.

The changes lowered the LDL cholesterol levels that were advised to be treated with drug therapy -- thereby significantly increasing the statin market.

Forbes.com May 26, 2006

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Dr. Mercola's Comment:

HAVE YOU HAD YOUR DOPE TODAY????? The health care field has evolved into a facade for the business of selling drugs. The pharmaceutical industry spends more than $4 billion a year to market drugs to consumers in the United States and more than $16 billion to market them to U.S. physicians. Moreover, they have come up with some of the most effective and creative marketing schemes in history.

You probably didn't know that top U.S. drug makers spend 2.5 times as much on marketing and administration as they do on research, and at least a third of the drugs marketed by industry leaders were discovered by universities or small biotech companies.

YET drug companies justify their extremely high prices by saying they need this money to cover their high R&D costs.

Hogwash. They need to charge high prices to increase their profits, period. After all, they need to maintain their status as one of the most profitable industries on the planet.

One particularly pernicious marketing strategy they use is to create an illness where none existed before so they can offer you an expensive solution. Does this sound too incredible to be true?

To be sure, let's examine the cholesterol issue. In 2001 Dr. Antonio M. Gotto, Jr., dean of Cornell University Medical College, spoke at a press conference at the XII International Symposium on Atherosclerosis. He predicted more than half the population of the United States could one day be taking daily doses of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.

As if to make Dr. Gotto's prediction true, later in 2001 the drug companies were able to manipulate the National Cholesterol Education Program committee to change the 1993 guidelines for treating those with cholesterol.

They modified the recommendations to include anyone with an LDL (bad cholesterol) level from 130 to 100 to be a candidate for drug therapy. This one change increased their potential market in the United States alone by more than 36 million people. This tripled the number of people that were eligible for cholesterol-lowering medications.

Then, in 2004, the same federal committee reduced the level even further to 70. It is difficult to obtain estimates, but it is likely that this added tens of millions of potential new candidates for their expensive solution.

What is their solution? Using drugs that in no way, shape or form treat the problem and are required to be taken indefinitely. Lipitor alone generates more than $10 billion a year in annual sales.

Related Articles:

The Truth About Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs (Statins), Cholesterol and Health

Will Cholesterol Drugs go Over the Counter Soon?

New Cholesterol Guidelines for Converting Healthy People into Patients