article_snippet: Dr Sidney Wolfe is the founder and senior adviser to the US civil rights body Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, which attempted to get the drug banned ten years ago because of muscle and kidney problems.
article_snippet: Since then, evidence had continued to mount about the drug’s poor benefits, Dr Sidney Wolfe claims.
article_snippet: This led to concern that the effects may have been over-estimated, Dr Sidney Wolfe adds in an editorial in The BMJ medical journal.
article_snippet: A review of trials showed that the drug, also known as Crestor, was linked to a 25 per cent extra risk of diabetes compared with a placebo, Dr Sidney Wolfe says.
article_snippet: Dr Wolfe adds that worldwide 2013 sales of the medicine were £5.5billion, the third highest for any branded drug.
article_snippet: The drug’s patent expires in 2016 and Dr Wolfe expresses hope this would lead to a sharp decline in The drug’s patent use.
article_snippet: But Dr Kailash Chand, a GP and deputy chairman of the British Medical Association, did not make any link at first.
article_snippet: Senior doctor: Dr Kailash Chand, a GP and deputy chairman of the British Medical Association said: ‘I thought it was worth seeing what would happen if I stopped taking the drug.
article_snippet: London cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra said the side-effects of statins have been downplayed.
article_snippet: To think that taking a drug that drastically reduces one’s cholesterol will have no other potential adverse effect is not just lazy medicine, taking a drug that drastically reduces one’s cholesterol will have no other potential adverse effect’s bad science,’ he added.
highlights_snippet: Experts claim protection against heart attacks outweighs  side-effects .