The Vytorin Limbo: Have Scrips Hit Bottom?
1 CommentBy Ed Silverman // November 14th, 2008 // 3:27 pm
After months of precipitous decline with nary a respite, the increasingly downward trend in Vytorin prescriptions has hit a pause. Of course, one month does not a trend make, but could this be the bottom? We confess that we do not know.
In any event, the latest monthly data shows prescriptions were flat in October. The previous month, scrips fell 3.7 percent reflecting ongoing confusion over the results of the SEAS clinical trial, which unexpectedly yielded a mysterious number of cases of cancer and cancer-related deaths, not to mention a failed primary endpoint.
However, Vytorin’s share of the overall cholesterol market fell to 5.8 percent last month, from 6 percent in September, according to a Schering-Plough filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Back in January, before the controversy over the Enhance trial exploded, Vytorin’s share of the overall cholesterol market stood at 9 percent.
Meanwhile, scrips for Zetia - which is combined with Merck’s Zocor to form Vytorin - rose 1 percent last month. The drugmakers’ combined cholesterol ‘franchise,’ which amounted to 15.2 percent of the cholesterol market in January, 12.1 percent in June and 10.8 percent in September, slid to 10.6 percent last month.
Dan A.
With statins as a class of medications- in combination with others, or otherwise:
A.E.s are believed to be often under-reported with high doses of potent statins in particular. Additionally, there is no reduction in mortality or increase in the lifespan of one on statin therapy. So caution should perhaps be considered if one chooses to prescribe such a drug.
Several risk factors should determine if one is placed on statin therapy, and not just one.
Statins do decrease CV events and risks significantly. The statins do in fact increase endothelial function, stabilize coronary plaque build- up, and decrease thrombus formation. Maximum reduction in LDL is evaluated after about a month of therapy.
There is evidence to suggest that statins have other benefits besides lowering LDL, such as reducing inflammation (CRP), those with dementia or Parkinson’s disease, and some forms of Cancer and cataracts.
It appears those statins produced by fermentation, such as Zocor and Pravachol, have less myopathy than the other synthetic statins, possibly due to being more hydrophyllic.
Yet overall, the existing cholesterol lowering recommendation should be re-evaluated, as they may be over-exaggerated.
Finally, a focus on children and their lifestyles should be amplified so their arteries do not become those of one who is middle-aged, and prevent them from being candidates for statin therapy,
Dan Abshear