With many recent studies showing a higher prevalence of Zocor
muscle injuries, as well as rhabdomyolysis, in the Chinese and Japanese
population, more Zocor lawsuit may be forthcoming to try to receive damages
for those injuries.
Zocor is a cholesterol lowering medication manufactured by
Merck. In March 2010, the FDA issued a drug safety communication that warned
about an increased risk of Zocor muscle injury for those patients taking the
eighty milligram dose, which is the highest permitted. Also in March 2010, the
FDA approved a label revision based on the Heart Protection Study 2, which
warned Chinese patients that they should not receive the eighty milligram dose,
or even a forty milligram dose, if they also take a niacin product, which is
also used to lower cholesterol. Chinese and Japanese people may be more
susceptible to Zocor injury due to genetic differences affecting how the drug
is metabolized in their bodies.
Further Zocor Study Findings
Other studies have also shown that Asian people may have an
increased risk of Zocor muscle injury. The FDA had also warned about other
similar statin drugs (used to lower high cholesterol levels) building to higher
levels in Asians, and recommended lower dosages in the Asian population.
Studies at the Duke University Medical Center revealed that genes can make a
difference in different populations concerning cholesterol. Therefore, some
people need stronger statins to lower their cholesterol levels, at the risk of
adverse Zocor side effects. And, scientists in Hong Kong plan to test many statins in
order to determine if genes that case high cholesterol in Chinese people differ
from the genes that affect Western patients.
Despite the FDA label changes warning about the risk of
Zocor muscle injury in the Asian community, those who have had serious Zocor
side effects before the warning may receive compensation from Merck. Though the
label has now been updated to include such warnings, a Zocor lawyer may allege
that the warnings are not enough. This may be especially true if the studies
reveal an even stronger connection between Zocor muscle injury and Asians.
