Yes, possibly. It is called "standard of care". And the Big Pharma companies worked very tirelessly to get statins into that category.
Ghost written studies, and some very complex mathematical tinkering to show more benefit than originally was present.
Very few people are statistically educated enough to find these tricks, but they have been found eventually and revealed in various books and papers. So doctors just relied on sales reps to tell them what to do. My own doctor believed that Lipitor REVERSES plaque.... when that is just not true, but presented in a seminar with bogus ultrasounds.(Lipitor and other statins are implicated in causing hemorrhage strokes BTW.) I found the critique of that researcher's assertions years ago online. But she still BELIEVED.
She still asks me at each checkup if I would accept statins, for the record, and I still refuse. I am only borderline anyway if one believes the fabricated statistics.
Doctors were "bribed" to write more and more RXs for statins.
Drug reps get monthly numbers of RXs for their products filled at most drug stores. These are presented to doctors at the visits, and those doctors showing good "numbers" get trips, reference books, cash etc as "rewards". I used to talk to a drug rep who explained it all to me years ago. In fact the main whistle blower in this regard came from Canada....
http://ethicalnag.org/2012/08/13/big-pharma-persuasion/
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/...ushers/304714/
http://www.propublica.org/article/wh...tor-prescribes
Quote:
As reporters who have long investigated health care and exposed frightening variations in quality, we wondered why so much secrecy shrouds the prescribing habits of doctors.
The information certainly isn’t secret to drug companies. They spend millions of dollars buying prescription records from companies that purchase them from pharmacies. The drugmakers then use the data to target their pitches and measure success.
But when we tried to purchase the records from the companies that supply them to drug manufacturers, we were told we couldn't have them — at any price.
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All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.-- Galileo Galilei
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Weezie looking at petunias 8.25.2017
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