Heart failure drug under intense scrutiny

Are most pharmaceutical drugs safe? There is always intense debate when I pose that question, as many drugs do indeed help patients (albeit with nasty side effects) while other seem to create a dependence environment more than actual biological health increases.

In the latest edition, Natrecor -- a drug used to help heart failure patients -- is being given credit for helping those patients. The cost? $500 per dose (ouch!). Critics say it's a waste of money and does little to help patients with severe heart problems. In fact, they say kidney failure is a side effect of the drug. That's not exactly encouraging.

A recent study refutes this, saying that there was no such trend in looking at 75 patients on the drug. However, the drug should only be used for a very specific type of heart ailment: acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF). When other generalizations are used in talking about the drug, that's when the lines become blurry, say supporters. But then again, ADHF is a blurry area in and of itself.