Mercks simvastatin (Zocor) is in the news yet again. This time the FDA has revised the cholesterol-lowering drugs dosing limitations from 10 mg to 20 mg when it is administered alongside the antiarrhythmic drug amiodarone.

Pfizer is under the gun for tactics designed to retain some of its market share after its blockbuster drug, Lipitor, came off patent. In an interview with Cardiovascular Business, a co-author of a perspective published online Dec. 7 in the New England Journal of Medicine discussed how Pfizers strategy could affect atorvastatin pricing and the greater generic market.

Androgen deprivation therapy administered to men with prostate cancer did not increase the risk of cardiovascular death, according to meta-analysis of prospective randomized trials. In addition, the study published in the Dec. 7 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the therapy was associated with a lower risk of prostate cancer-specific mortality and all-cause mortality.

A registry jointly administered by the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) for monitoring patients who receive transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) therapy in the U.S. will provide a template for future collaborative projects, ACCs president said in an interview. A long-term goal is to grow the registry into a robust, disease-specific resource for clinicians, regulators and others.

The clock has been ticking for Pfizers blockbuster cholesterol pill Lipitor (atorvastatin) patent to expire, and now that time has come. Just as the patent expired, a generic version of the drug was approved by the FDA.

Despite the fact that statins have been widely known to decrease the risk of cardiovascular events, there remains room for improvement in the treatment of obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) patients, according to results of a study published in the Nov. 29 issue of Circulation. In fact, the researchers found that nearly 17 percent of patients were left untreated.

Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs have launched a collaborative project that uses magnetoencephalography to study military personnel suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) and better define the mechanism of the relationship between the two conditions.

Merck, Sharp & Dohme will shell out $950 million to settle criminal charges and civil charges related to illegally misbranding its painkiller rofecoxib (Vioxx). Merck pled guilty to on -countthat it violated the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act for misbranding Vioxx and downplayed the potential health risks.