AbbVie Price Boost of Drug Slammed in Studies Criticized
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AbbVie Inc. boosted the price of its Niaspan heart pill by 37 percent to offset prescription losses after studies panned the drug, drawing criticism from doctors amid a national debate over the high cost of health care.
The findings from two studies, in almost 30,000 people, were reported in 2011 and last year. Neither showed benefit from the drug, which is also sold as a generic called niacin, and the 2011 research was stopped early after the National Institutes of Health said patients on the medicine had strokes at double the rate of those just taking a companion drug.