Researchers at Cornell University tested the drug lovastatin, made by Merck Co. as Mevecor, on 6, 505 men and women who showed no signs of heart disease and had "average" cholesterol levels.
Today, NEJM reaffirmed its position even as it published letters from Merck and its co-authors denying wrongdoing.
At Theravance, Merck alum Roy Vagelos lured former Merck chemist Burton Christensen, co-inventor of three antibiotics at Merck, to come out of retirement in 1998 to help create new antibiotics.
Apparently, Merck-Medco accounted for sales in a way that booked co-payments that consumers pay to pharmacies as revenue for Merck, and then booked an equivalent amount as costs.
One medicine with potential is Zetia, a cholesterol pill co-marketed with Merck that has blockbuster potential.
Zetia, known generically as ezetimibe, was invented in Schering's labs (see: "Behind Zetia's Curtain") and is co-marketed with Merck.
That same month pharmaceutical maker Merck KGaA of Germany agreed to co-develop with Chi-Med anticancer drugs derived from natural products.
It is in mid-stage clinical trials, and is being co-developed by Merck (nyse: MRK - news - people ).
Schering, meanwhile, is benefiting from the first sign that its sales are leveling out, and that its cholesterol medicines, co-marketed with Merck, could take off.
Second, the company has lot riding on Zetia, a cholesterol medicine that Schering is co-developing with Merck (nyse: MRK - news - people ).
Its most promising new drug, the cholesterol pill Zetia, is not expected to really gain any significant steam this year despite co-promotion from Merck (nyse: MRK - news - people ).
Ntera recently signed a co-development agreement with Merck (nyse: MRK - news - people ) to supply product to LCD manufacturers.
With two Cleveland Clinic colleagues, Topol co-wrote a 2001 analysis of data on Merck's Vioxx that first suggested a link between this class of painkillers, called cox-2 inhibitors, and heart problems.
Were Merck to receive approval, it would help Vioxx outsell Celebrex, a competing drug co-marketed by Pfizer (nyse: PFE - news - people) and Pharmacia (nyse: PHA - news - people).
The good news: Merck is thinking about putting yet another vaccine into preclinical trials, this one developed by AIDS co-discoverer Robert Gallo and profiled in the Sept. 17 issue of Forbes.
That same month pharmaceutical maker Merck (nyse: MRK - news - people ) KGaA of Germany agreed to co-develop with Chi-Med anticancer drugs derived from natural products.
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