After a follow-up period of 6.2 years, the Bezafibrate Infarction Prevention (BIP) trial showed that treatment with bezafibrate produced a nonsignificant 7.3% reduction in the rate of major cardiac events. These negative results were likely due to unbalanced usage of nonstudy lipid-lowering drugs. The investigators of the BIP trial reported results after an extended follow-up of 8.2 years. Results of this investigation showed that treatment with bezafibrate was associated with a significant 17% risk reduction (nonfatal myocardial infarction or cardiac death) when study patients were censored from the analysis upon initiation of therapy with nonstudy lipid-lowering drugs. Throughout the discussion, the authors discuss what may have accounted for the negative findings initially obtained in the BIP trial.
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