Dr. Mark Gordon on health: what the evidence says · JRE #1056
SUBJECT: HEALTH
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
we would expect our nutrition is changing, the quality of foods that we eat, and the fact that we have since 1986 statin drugs, which are $36 billion a year, we would anticipate that the rate
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
Mark Gordon claimed statin drugs have existed since 1986 and generate $36 billion a year in sales. On the timeline, Merck submitted lovastatin's (Mevacor) New Drug Application to the FDA in November 1986, but the drug was not actually approved for commercial use until September 1, 1987, according to a peer-reviewed historical review and a JAMA Cardiology retrospective. So "since 1986" is defensible if measured from the NDA submission date but is off by about a year if measured from market approval. On the sales figure, the same peer-reviewed review reports total statin-class sales of $25 billion in 2005, the closest independently sourced benchmark available and in the same general order of magnitude as Gordon's $36 billion figure. However, neither source provides a sales figure specific to 2017 (when this episode aired), so the $36 billion claim could not be independently verified for that year and its accuracy at the time of the broadcast remains unconfirmed.