Maybe not when it comes to Vytorin. You may recall that preliminary results of a study called SEAS were released last month and unexpectedly revealed a crop of cancer-related deaths, which Merck and Schering-Plough labeled an anomaly. However, the explanation appears not to have convinced everyone that the drug, which combines Zetia and Zocor, is not problematic.

At the time, Richard Peto, an Oxford University statistician who is overseeing yet another Vytorin trial, pooled data from his and one other large, ongoing Vytorin study and contended the cancer risk was a statistical fluke, as Forbes notes. He used the word ‘bizarre’ to describe any link. That served to dampen the cancer scare.

However, the mag surveyed 16 experts about the and writes that none were entirely convinced of a link to cancer, but eight thought Peto had gone too far in completely dismissing any cancer risk. Ten thought there was at least some possibility that Vytorin increases the risk of death for patients who have cancer.

Next week, Forbes notes, the full results of SEAS will be presented at a medical meeting in Munich, suggesting yet another battle over Vytorin is imminent.