This Drug Has No Side Effects

I was reading an article on CNN: Trial: Popular cholesterol drug fails to improve heart disease about the drugs Vytorin and Zetia which have proved very popular because they have fewer side effects than the tradition cholesterol medicines. According to the article the makers of the drugs made $5 Billion in sales.... but turns out... "The results show the drug had "no result -- zilch. In no subgroup, in no segment, was there any added benefit" for reducing plaque, said Dr. John Kastelein, the Dutch scientist who led the study."

Isn't this the sort of thing they are supposed to test before they release a drug onto the market and do $200 million in advertising? And are we susceptible to advertising.... apparently so -- " In Canada, where marketing drugs directly to consumers is not allowed, sales were four times lower." Doctors weren't supposed to be prescribing this drug unless the more traditional drugs didn't work.

It's stuff like this that makes me think that something big is going to happen around drugs in the next 10-20 years.... but what? What will be the straw that finally breaks the camel's back? Will it be something unrelated to health like a moving interest rate? Or will it be some big case against someone bringing in drugs from Canada? Or will it be a science fiction answer where there's some huge catastrophe where what's going on with the drug companies is just immaterial?