"Lipitor - The Human Cost

Lipitor, a cholesterol lowering drug made by Pfizer and sold to millions of health conscious but ill informed patients, is one of the most profitable drugs the pharmaceutical industry has ever come up with. Sales account for a quarter of Pfizer's $ 32 billion annual sales. Expected to gross more than $ 10 billion this year, Lipitor is poised to become the largest-selling pharmaceutical in history, surpassing Pfizer's other wonder drug, Viagra.

But the price to society is much higher than a mere 8 to 10 billion dollars. Lipitor and other drugs in the statin class, such as Bayer's version Baycol - removed from the market by its maker - are not only lowering cholesterol. These drugs apparently ruin perfectly good lives with "side effects" that lead to slow degradation into physical disability."