Oxford researchers want to remove statin safety warnings — but keep their data secret
Influential statin researchers urge regulators to weaken safety warnings — but the evidence behind their claims remains withheld from independent scrutiny.
The Cholesterol Treatment Trialists’ (CTT) Collaboration has returned with a new analysis of statins — the most widely prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs in the world.
In a paper published in The Lancet, the Oxford-based group argues that several harms long associated with statins — including cognitive impairment, mood disturbance, sleep problems and peripheral neuropathy — are not supported by clinical trial evidence.
It now says the warnings on statin product labels should be revised.
The study has been reported globally with striking confidence and little scrutiny. Few outlets have asked how these conclusions were reached — or whether the underlying evidence justifies them.
The questions that should be asked are straightforward.
Why is an influential academic collaboration seeking to remove established safety warnings? Were the original trials even capable of detecting these harms? And why does the underlying patient-level data remain inaccessible?
These questions go to the heart of the statin wars.