European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 3, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday septembers 1987 the stars and stripes Page 3 Fra oks cholesterol lowering drug will revolutionize cholesterol buildup coronary Frea Menf health care experts say b Jane e. Brody new York not the food and drug admin titration tuesday approved for marketing a new Lypp or drug that experts have hailed As the most effective remedy yet devised for lowering cholesterol in the blood. The drug Lov Stalin is expected to revolutionize treatment of High cholesterol Levels which heart specialists regard As inc most important underlying cause of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease. About 20 million american adults live cholesterol Levels that put them at very High risk of developing coronary heart disease and experts predict Hal Lovas Lalin will be prescribed for Many of these people As Well As millions of others whose risk is not quite a High. However the treatment which should be available in two to three weeks will be costly. At a news Confer ence tuesday representative of he Developer Merck & co., said the Price of Lova statin to the pharmacist would be 11.25 per 20-Milligram dose and some patients would need four 20-Milligram tablets a Day thus with the retail markup the annual Cost for a lion Sal highest risk could exceed $3,000. Lov Slatin which will be sold by prescription under the Trade name Mev acor is expected to become a pharmaceutical Gold mine for Merck perhaps reaching sales of More than 11 billion a year. In heavy trading tuesday Merck Stock jumped As much As four Points then settled Down to close Ai 205, a gain of just on Point above monday s closing. Experts cautioned tuesday that Tova statin should not be considered an alternative to a cholesterol lower ing diet but rather an adjunct to dietary changes. In Many people they said diet alone is effective in bring ing cholesterol Down to desirable Levels. The drug Agency approved he drug for use Only when diet and exercise alone have not achieved the desired reduction in cholesterol. Furthermore the drug works Best when taken in conjunction with a Low fat Low cholesterol diet said or. Michael s. Brown whose Nobel prize winning studies with or. Joseph l. Goldstein provided the Sci cholesterol is the main component of plaque the laity Yellowish substance that can collect inside arteries like rust does in Wall pipes artery col Titiro the buildup begins when excess cholesterol Cote cos beneath artery lining cells Hal have been damaged by smoking or High blood pressure Phil lot platelets one at die body s protective mechanisms gather at damage site and form a Cap to isolate the plaque fatty con of plaque common to Lorn blood clot Cip Bruni ii Cap Breaks plaque can comb Newith Dot producing factors in blood to Block an artery to the heart causing Aheart attack to the brain causing a stroke or to a leg causing gangrene pm Ciao Tobun or pc sour tvs an nun Hwy Amoco Hal of Temh drug atm flirt pm cum Ercy Dopita entitle basis for the development of Lova statin. Brown and Goldstein both at the University of Texas health science Center in Dallas deciphered the body s Natu ral mechanism for controlling cholesterol Levels in the blood. Unlike most drugs which Are discovered by screen ing Large numbers of compounds in animal tests Lovas Utin was purposely designed to take advantage of the mechanism of cholesterol metabolism elucidated through Basic research Goldstein said. Lova statin is the first to be approved of a new class of medications called hmm Coa Reductase inhibitors that work by blocking the liver enzyme needed to manufacture cholesterol in the body. Seventy percent of the body s cholesterol is manufactured a the liver. When liver production is blocked the liver is forced to remove cholesterol from the blood to meet its metabolic needs. This in turn Lowers inc level of cholesterol circulating in the blood. Several other inhibitors of the liver s cholesterol producing enzyme Are still being tested including another Merck product and one by Squibb. This class of drugs is very exciting said or. Basil Rifkind chief of the lipid metabolism and alter Agency Sis Branch of the National heart lung and blood Institute in Beth Coda my. Lovas Lalin is powerful in its ability to lower cholesterol and it is easy to Lake i contrast to other cholesterol lowering drugs. It should make a big difference in gelling people to stay on treat ment for elevated cholesterol. Rifkind says he believes Lovas Taiin will be More than just a new drug adding ii will serve As a educational instrument in its own right because in comes alone at a time when a lot of emphasis is being placed on the importance of lowering cholesterol but until now the tools for doing this weren t too  the average cholesterol level of Middle aged adults in his country is currently about 215 milligrams per 100 Millie Ilcus of blood serum. Goals recently announced by Federal health official Call for keeping cholesterol Levels under 200 in people 30 and older and under 180 for those 20 to 29. For those in their 30s, a level of 220 to 239 is regarded As moderately risky and a level of 240 or More is considered High risk. For Hose 40 and older a cholesterol level of 240 to 259 is considered a moderate risk and a level of 260or More is High risk. Cd says information unobtainable vets ask continuation of agent Orange study Washington a veterans groups said tuesday that government scientists should examine new methods for studying effects of agent Orange exposure on soldiers in the Vietnam War rather than abandon a congressionally ordered study. The Federal centers for disease control has told government officials it can not find enough former ground soldiers in Vietnam who were exposed to the herbicide to do a scientifically valid study. Some organizations representing the nearly 3 million soldiers who served in Vietnam disputed the conclusion How Ever and complained Federal scientists Drew their plans for the study so narrowly that Many veterans were excluded from consideration. Charles e. Butch Joeckel executive director of the disabled american Veter ans said the cd s finding Musi be viewed As acknowledgement that the cd study protocol was flawed and that investigators must now examine what other methods of scientific inquiry May be used to identify exposure. We feel that a study can be carried out and should be said John Sommer Deputy director of the american legion. If a study is not going to Fly is not feasible we re not saying it should be carried out added Sommer. However in this instance in our opinion cd lightened the criteria on those people thai were to be involved so far that we feel they eliminated a lot of people who were probably heavily  the Vietnam veterans of America which has been engaged in a Legal Battle with the veterans administration Over the agent Orange Issue said it had consulting scientists who quarrelled with the cd s methodology in selecting soldiers for study. This was t an Earth shaking development to us because we did t think their Model worked anyway said via spokesman Mike Leaveck. Now insinuations Are being made because of this validation lest failing thai you can t do any study. That s pure  faced with fears among veterans that exposure to agent Orange was wide spread among Vietnam ground troops Congress in 1979 ordered the cd to conduct a Broad study of the effects of exposure. Congress ordered thai the cd con duct the study rather than the a be cause of veterans opposition to participation by the a which has opposed compensation for some ill effects attributed to agent Orange exposure. Officials said the congressional office of technology assessment and the Rea Gan administration s agent Orange working group will make recommendations to Congress on How to proceed in Light of the cd finding. Congress is expected to await inc re sults of a broader cd study on the Overall health experience of Vietnam veterans said congressional sources who declined to be identified before moving on the question of compensation for ill Nesses suspected of being linked to agent Orange exposure. That study is not re lated to the agent Orange finding but in is anticipated that agent Orange related problems would turn up in the broader study. Agent Orange was used in Vietnam from 1965 to 1970 by . Farces to de foliate Jungle hiding places used by communist insurgents. Ingredients of the herbicide include dioxin one of the most potent poisons in existence. It also causes cancer in some animals. The cd reported july 24 thai its Pilot study of More than 400 soldiers who served in a Region routinely sprayed found Levels of dioxin in their blood 10 be within the Normal Range for the Gener Al population. It said there was Lille if any connection Between veterans re corded exposures to agent Orange and their blood dioxin Levels today. Or. Croon Houk director of cd Center for environmental health said the findings make it impossible to identify who is exposed and who is not  Sommer contended the criteria used by the cd disqualified from consideration some heavily exposed soldiers. He said the cd excluded those who served More than one Lour of duty in Vietnam those who served in an affected area fewer than 180 Days those above a specialist five or sergeant s rank and others. What they re saying is they can t find enough exposed people. We find thai hard to believe he said. A different View however was voiced by the veterans of foreign wars. Executive director Cooper holi said his group had no quarrel with the study and look it to mean there Wai no evidence so far of nor Icide caused health problems. We re Back to Square one now he said. We started out by trying to prove the herbicide was causing a lot of prob  a source on the Senate veterans of Fain committee staff who spoke Only on condition he not be further identified said the cacs finding was viewed As about As conclusive As you get that we can t find who was  no one it Able to come up with any Way of determining in scientifically valid fashion whether individuals who served in Vietnam were heavily exposed to agent Orange. Without that you can t do an exposure study he said