Congress: Our Vytorin Probe Has Just Begun!
6 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // January 14th, 2008 // 4:57 pm
Just because Merck and Schering-Plough finally released the dismal results of the Enhance trial for their Vytorin cholesterol med doesn’t mean John Dingell and Burt Stupak are done looking into the two-year delay in disclosing the data or the reasons for, briefly, changing the primary endpoint.
Au contraire. The congressmen, who announced their probe the same day Merck and Schering-Plough backpedaled on the primary endpoint, released a statement this afternoon saying the House Energy and Commerce Committee are as energized as ever about learning the reasons the drugmakers behaved as they did.
“Today’s announcement that the Enhance study failed to find any positive benefit from the addition of Zetia to a common, inexpensive, generic therapy raises concerns that attempts were made to mask the minimal value of this new drug. Additionally, Merck and Schering-Plough’s delay in releasing study results, as well as their attempt to manipulate the data is, quite frankly, suspicious,†says Dingell in a statement.
“Heart disease is a serious and growing national problem. American consumers and their doctors should not have had to wait nearly two years for this information. Why did Merck and Schering-Plough go to great lengths to delay the study results? Why did they attempt to manipulate the data? We will continue our investigation until these questions are answered.â€
Adds Stupak: “In light of today’s results, which were released nearly two years after the ENHANCE trial ended, it is easy to conclude that Merck and Schering-Plough intentionally sought to delay the release of this data. It’s currently unclear whether these companies knew that adding a new expensive drug accomplished nothing more than an established, cheaper, generic. But it is clear that our investigation is far from over.â€
BDM
Good news! They definitely need to know who knew what when. We also need to know who made decisions and if they used this select information for their own financial benefit!
JFH
Tried many of the statin drugs including Zocor by itself. Vytorin was only cholesterol lower drug that brought my level below 200 (180) and holding nicely. No side effects and liver enzymes OK.
Pete
Go Congress! Hope you catch them red-handed! Given past history of the individuals involved, I think that there’s much more to this than meets the eye. However, only a well-conducted investigation will reveal the shennanigans.
Justice in Michigan
Michigan Dems to the rescue…Maybe because we don’t have a real primary today unless voting “uncommitted” is a good time.
JFH - My understanding is that, while Vytorin is being questioned for first-line therapy, it is not for those who need it to get to LDL levels considered to be the right targets for those people
Tomas
The investigation is made even more critical by the events of the past couple of days. Congress will be very surprised by what they find - particularly in the case of Schering-Plough. Don’t think for a second that they’re the innocent bystanders in all this. Their management team has a questionable history. The hearings acn’t happen fast enough - befor ethey hide everything!
Lee
I hope that Congress has the guts to go after these companies. I used to work for Schering-plough and they don’t have “honesty” in their vocabulary. They use the word all of the time, but the opposite is true of the company and its’ culture. In my opinion, they are a bunch unethical, dishonest, greedy hypocrits who will do anything for a buck. I’ve seen some things that would knock your socks off! Someday I’m going to write a book!