Discovery and development of statins trials showed very good inhibitory effect as in clinical trials, however in a long term toxicity study in dogs it resulted in toxic effects at higher doses and as a result was believed to be too toxic to be given to humans. In 1978, Alfred Alberts and colleagues at Merck Research Laboratories discovered a new natural product in a fermentation broth of "Aspergillus terreus", their product showed good HMGR inhibition and they named the product mevinolin, which later became known as lovastatin. The cholesterol controversy began in the early promotion of statins. Statins are a competitive antagonists of HMG CoA,
Specialty drugs in the United States testing; and "biologics", or medicines created through biologic processes, rather than chemically synthesized like most pharmaceuticals". He argued that there should be a slight increase in co-pays for the more commonly using lower-tier medications to allow a lower co-pay for those who "require high-cost specialty tier medications". According to the 2014 Express Scripts Drug Trend Report, the most significant increase in prescription drugs in the United States in 2014 was due to "increased inflation and utilization of hepatitis C and compounded medications". "Excluding those two therapy classes, overall drug spend would have increased only 6.4%. The cost of "the top