The activist physician Dr. Ben Goldacre has had the pharmaceutical industry in his sights for a long time. His book, Bad Pharma (2012), criticized the industry on a number of topics, including incomplete reporting of clinical trials. One area that Dr. Goldacre is particularly concerned about is statins, the LDL-cholesterol (LDL-c)-lowering drugs that have revolutionized the treatment of heart disease. In a recent interview, given in advance of his Australian tour, Dr. Goldacre explained his misgivings about this class of drugs. In particular, he is concerned that the two most popular prescribed statins, atorvastatin (Pfizer’s Lipitor) and simvastatin (Merck’s Zocor), have never been tested against each other to determine which works better. He feels that this is important because, if one works only slightly better than the other, it’s still a result that could convert into the prevention of thousands of strokes and heart attacks every year:
