Drug Targeted to raise good HDL Cholesterol, Merck & Co long-acting Niacin, Poses Serious Side Effects

The medication Merck & Co long-acting niacin poses some unexpected serious side effects that could affect heart health according to a recent study released Saturday. The drug is targeted at raising good HDL cholesterol. 

Merck has already given up on the drug that combines extended-release niacin with an experimental agent called laropiprant, designed to prevent the uncomfortable facial flushing associated with niacin.

When it was announced that the drug called Tredaptive had failed to prevent heart attacks, strokes, death and other complications in heart patients also taking drugs to lower bad LDL cholesterol, Merck said, according to Reuters, that it would not seek U.S. approval and would stop selling it in the dozens of other countries where it was already available.

A European medical journal last week said the drug caused concerning muscle weakness, especially in Asian patients.

Yet results presented on Saturday at the American College of Cardiology scientific meeting in San Francisco showed an even more disturbing image of the product. It is reported that researchers found patients taking the medicine had significantly higher rates of bleeding and infection.

Those taking Tredaptive also experienced similar health problems, according to researchers, including new onset diabetes and diabetic complications and gastrointestinal problems.

Professor Jane Armitage, who led the study called HPS2-Thrive, called the findings disappointing.

"Still," she said, "finding out a drug is not helping people is just as important as finding that it has benefits."

However, critics of the study point out that complications mentioned may not be so severe in all patients. Dr. Steven Nissen, head of cardiology at Cleveland Clinic, for instance, was not prepared to write off niacin therapy just yet for patients with very low HDL levels.

"Sometimes large and simple trials are large and sloppy trials," he said.