Dear colleagues,
Sometime back there was a query from an E-drug participant regarding
a study comparing the efficacy of terazosin (Hytrin) and finasteride
(Proscar) for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia. Today's
issue of the New England of Journal of Medicine (N Engl J Med 1996;
335:533-9) carries an original article "The Efficacy of Terazosin,
Finasteride, or Both in Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy". According to
Dr. Herbert Lepor of New York University Medical Center and lead author
of the study, finasteride is no more than "an expensive placebo." By the
way, this study was funded by the makers of the two drugs and the US
government's Veterans Administration. Meanwhile, the makers of
finasteride, who dispute the findings, are distributing galley proofs
of an article in next month's issue of the journal Urology that comes
to a different conclusion.
I thought this info may be useful to this group.
Syed Rizwanuddin Ahmad
Researcher
Drug Safey, Education and Information
P.O.Box 5750
Washington, DC 20016-1350, USA
e-mail: srahmad@essential.org