Simvastatin (Zocor(R)) Approved For Over The Counter Sales In Great Britian

The British government has recently approved the statin drug, simvastatin, to be sold without a prescription. The idea of selling cholesterol-lowering medications over-the-counter is not new: the Food and Drug Administration here in the US has also entertained this idea before, however, there has been no sufficient evidence that would suggest selling these drugs without a prescription would be beneficial in an OTC setting. Some advocates of this idea state that statins would give people easier access to reducing the most modifiable risk factor for heart disease--high cholesterol. However, many health care providers contend that patients may use this as a crutch to lower their cholesterol--without considering healthy lifestyle changes first. Additionally, statin side effects, such as muscle soreness and liver problems, may not properly be addressed if the drug was available OTC. This notion has received mixed feelings in the medical community in Britian and abroad. Read about it here.