Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

Following Vytorin’s recent fall from its blockbuster status, Merck is ratcheting up studies of its new cholesterol fighting drug, The Washington Times reported.

MK-0524A, as the new drug is called, is the subject of a study based in Oxford University in England. Merck submitted the drug to the FDA for approval, but it was rejected last April. The FDA wanted results from the study known as THRIVE (Treatment of HDL to Reduce the Incidence of Vascular Events) before it made another ruling.

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Does Vytorin increase the risk of cancer death? The question seems like it would be simple to answer, yet finding the answer requires navigating through a murky labyrinth of botched test results, apparent cover-ups, possible payoffs, and a whorl of conflicting interpretations that sometimes resemble self-interest, sometimes truth, depending on whom you ask.

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The cholesterol-fighting drugs Zetia and Vytorin, blockbuster drugs that once represented multi-billion dollar sales for Schering-Plough and Merck, now seem to be squeezing the pharmaceutical giants.

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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.

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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?

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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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