Drugs to lower cholesterol and prevent heart disease, taken by millions of people worldwide, increase the risk of cataracts, kidney failure, muscle pain and liver dysfunction, a study of more than 2 million Britons found.
The findings paint a fuller picture of the long-term risks of medications known as statins, such as Pfizer Inc.’s Lipitor, the world’s top-selling drug, and AstraZeneca Plc’s Crestor, the researchers said. The study, released today by the British Medical Journal, failed to validate a range of potential benefits, other than lowering cholesterol, attributed to statins and quantified some risks.