Statins may have no harmful side effects, as controversial paper withdrawn !

Claims that statins cause muscle pain, tiredness and diabetes contained in a paper by a Harvard medical expert may be wrong and have been withdrawn after errors were found in the research.

The British Medical Journal (BMJ) said it was setting up a panel of experts to decide whether it should completely retract two articles which claimed the drugs - taken by millions of Britons - caused harmful side effects and did not cut death rates.

The papers prompted a row, with one expert calling them "misleading".

The authors, Dr John Abramson from Harvard Medical School and UK cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra, have already withdrawn statements from the articles after some figures they cited were found to be incorrect, the BMJ said.

It admitted the errors had not been picked up by editors or experts who peer-reviewed them before publication in October.

More on this story here.

A reader comment on the Telegraph story.

"The Daily Express reports that the man who complained - Profressor Sir Rory Collins "has had multi-million pound funding from the manufacturers of statins". So he would wouldn't he?"

This is the guy Dr.Malcolm Kendrick calls Sir Rory Statin.