› $4.85 Billion settlement in drug case
For a while it seemed as if sales of Merck’s blockbuster anti-cholesterol drug Vytorin would plummet into oblivion. Unfavorable and botched ENHANCE trial results, harrowing SEAS trial results, lawsuits filed on behalf of individuals and government, congressional inquiries, and so on plagued Merck and co-creator Schering-Plough because it looked as if Vytorin was at best a dud and at worst a cancer-inducing danger.
Clinical trials haven’t been kind to Vytorin, Merck and Schering-Plough’s cholesterol brainchild. The first blow was dealt by the ENHANCE study, which showed Vytorin to be no more effective than much cheaper generic statins. Next came results of the SEAS trial, which indicated a link between Vytorin and risk of cancer and death by cancer. A flurry of disputed interpretations, accusations, and controversy followed in the wake of the trials.
Suffolk County, New York, officials are seeking to recover public funds spent on Vytorin prescriptions for its employees. The county contends that defendants Merck and Schering-Plough delayed releasing the results of the ENHANCE trial, which indicated Vytorin to be ineffective and in some cases inferior in reducing the growth of fatty arterial plaque than generic statins alone. From April 2006 to mid-January of 2008, Merck and Schering-Plough withheld the ENHANCE trial results while they continued to aggressively advertise Vytorin.
Is Schering-Plough’s motto, “To Earn Trust, Every Day,” laced with a little irony these days? What about Merck’s maxim “Where patients come first?” Does it evoke feelings of warmth and trust or does it just induce rolling eyeballs?
As news of Vytorin’s lackluster performance in clinical tests circulates throughout the medical community, many prominent physicians are advocating a return to the use of statins to treat high cholesterol. Statins, such as Crestor, Zocor, and Lipitor, lower the liver’s production of LDL (bad) cholesterol. Research shows that statins also reduce cardiac events by 60 percent and strokes by 17 percent.
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