Coenzyme Q10 be measured in blood plasma, these measurements reflect dietary intake rather than tissue status. Currently, most clinical centers measure CoQ levels in cultured skin fibroblasts, muscle biopsies, and blood mononuclear cells. Culture fibroblasts can be used also to evaluate the rate of endogenous CoQ biosynthesis, by measuring the uptake of C-labelled "p"-hydroxybenzoate. CoQ shares a biosynthetic pathway with cholesterol. The synthesis of an intermediary precursor of CoQ, mevalonate, is inhibited by some beta blockers, blood pressure-lowering medication, and statins, a class of cholesterol-lowering drugs. Statins can reduce serum levels of CoQ by up to 40%. CoQ is not approved by
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