Denial of Access as an Unmeasured Outcome in Nonprescription Statin Self-Selection Studies
Listed in
This article is not in any list yet, why not save it to one of your lists.Abstract
Background
Five nonprescription statin attempts have failed; a sixth attempt, under the FDA’s 2025-issued Additional Condition for Nonprescription Use (ACNU) pathway, is under way. Self-selection evidence is evaluated by whether ineligible consumers are excluded; how often eligible consumers are denied has never been reported.
Objective
To quantify denial of access to eligible consumers across the published self-selection record.
Methods
Secondary analysis of the three published United States self-selection studies (SELECT, CREST, TACTiC), the FDA guidance, and four advisory committees’ questions and votes. We recomputed diagnostic accuracy from published cross-tabulations, derived TACTiC’s prespecified unmitigated endpoints, and compared access strategies by decision curve analysis.
Results
The guidance’s endpoints contain no measure of denial, and every committee question addressing a selection error concerns admission of the ineligible. CREST’s sensitivity was 59.0% (95% CI 42.1%–74.4%), 29.5 percentage points below its reported positive predictive value; 41% of clinician-eligible participants were not approved. TACTiC’s reference standard reached only application-approved consumers; none of the 10,332 rejected was assessed; sensitivity is inestimable and its prespecified unmitigated endpoints, 84.2% and 80.9% against the published mitigated 90.7% and 98.1%, remain unpublished. Decision curve analysis favors the application over both alternatives across reasonable thresholds at the sample prevalence.
Conclusions
For nonprescription statin applications, the self-selection evidence framework counts errors of admission and leaves errors of denial unmeasured; its public health objective, fewer eligible adults untreated, cannot be evaluated on evidence counting only admissions. Four design and reporting changes, none requiring new methodology, would let the next application measure it.
