The ongoing controversy surrounding the Vytorin trial has brought with it speculation of insider trading. In particular, Carrie Smith Cox, the Schering-Plough president, sold 900,000 shares worth $28 million last spring. Now, BrandweekNRX has played our favorite game - connect the dots. And so, here’s the background, as the site tells it…

Sean McNicholas was vp of marketing for endocrine care at Pharmacia, which sold Genotropin, the human growth hormone until 2001. His boss’ boss was…drumroll…Carrie Smith Cox, who was Pharmacia’s president. Pharmacia, was later bought by Pfizer, was later charged in federal court with offering a kickback in the year 2000 in connection with its outsourcing contract for Genotropin, and agreed to plead guilty to the charge and pay a criminal fine.

Additionally, Pharmacia entered into a deferred prosecution agreement for its illegal promotion of Genotropin for such “off-label” uses as anti-aging, cosmetic use and athletic performance enhancement. As a result of the criminal plea and deferred prosecution agreement, the drugmaker paid a total of $34.7 million.

Guess what? Sean McNicholas is now Schering-Plough’s senior vp, responsible for Zetia and Vytorin, reporting directly to - guess who? - Carrie Smith Cox…

…You may recall that after an unexplained two-year delay in releasing results of the Vytorin study; a brief change in the primary endpoint orchestrated by unknown executives without the involvement of their lead investigator, and the naming of an independent review panel boasting members with financial conflicts, Schering-Plough finally coughed up the data earlier this week. The results weren’t good. The stock fell 20 percent.

And in case anyone was wondering about Carrie Smith Cox’s background, the site digs in further - she was a vp at Wyeth, where she was responsible for marketing Pondimin and Redux, the notorious diet pills that were withdrawn over serious lung and heart problems, and Prempro, the hormone replacement drug, which was linked to heart attacks and cancer.

So as Congress investigates the way Vytorin was handled, these questions are being asked: Did McNicholas have any role in the two-year delay, brief change in the primary endpoint, and naming of the review panel? Did he sell any Schering-Plough stock? And did he have any role in offering kickbacks and illegal promotion of Genotropin?

[UPDATE: We should note that BrandweekNRX's blogger, Peter Rost, was himself a Pharmacia marketing exec responsible for Genotropin, and later filed a whistleblower lawsuit alleging the off-label marketing charges. He remains embroiled in litigation.]

Hat tip to BrandweekNRX