But today, at the annual Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association and in the medical journal Lancet, researchers announced that Tricor failed to stop heart attacks and prevent deaths in a five-year study of almost 10, 000 diabetics.

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There are reasons to doubt the result, both because of questions about whether the study was mismanaged or badly designed, which could have led to no difference being shown between the drugs, and because the data have not been presented in a medical journal or at a scientific meeting.

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Dr Minor and his colleagues are currently writing a scientific paper on the man, set for publication in a medical journal later this year.

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