But Merck is doing that big Vytorin versus Zocor study, a giant clinical trial called IMPROVE-IT.
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Will it mean that Vytorin use will reduce heart attacks and strokes better than atorvastatin?
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After all, both drug components of Vytorin have been given to patients for over a decade.
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Veltri was a key player in a study of the cholesterol drug Vytorin called ENHANCE.
That would mean clear evidence about Vytorin's safety and effectiveness might never be obtained.
Vytorin combines Zocor with a newer drug called Zetia that adds additional cholesterol-lowering oomph.
The Vytorin combo is better at lowering cholesterol than either Zetia or Zocor alone.
The study involved more than 1, 800 patients who received either Vytorin or a placebo.
He says patients were "reassured" to be put on a low dose of Vytorin.
The companies co-market two cholesterol drugs, Vytorin and Zetia, that are both expected to be blockbusters.
To try to demonstrate this, Merck launched IMPROVE-IT, an 18, 000 patient trial comparing Vytorin to simvastatin.
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It would be hard to justify prescribing Vytorin in the face of well established generic statins.
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Merck and Schering have stood resolutely behind the safety and effectiveness of Zetia and Vytorin.
Controversy over Vytorin's efficacy caused its sales to drop by a quarter from a year ago.
The Vytorin study, he said, should have no impact on whether doctors prescribed his drugs.
If that's true, many patients would be better off on Lipitor or Crestor than on Vytorin.
Vytorin combines Zetia with Zocor in a combo pill to get an even bigger cholesterol-lowering wallop.
One reason for the decline: the falling sales of cholesterol drugs Vytorin and Zetia.
And Merck and Schering-Plough scrapped plans to do a Vytorin imaging trial with him.
David Brown, head of cardiology at Stony Brook University Medical Center, took his mother off Vytorin.
The selling point of Vytorin is that you Zetia boosts the cholesterol-lowering potency of statins.
The study, dubbed ENHANCE, did show a reduction in LDL levels for patients on Vytorin.
The FDA news is somewhat bad for Vytorin, as the below chart illustrates pretty clearly.
Merck and Schering have come under heavy criticism for another Vytorin study, called ENHANCE.
The Zetia-Zocor combo is sold under the name Vytorin, which is, itself, a blockbuster.
Merck and Schering-Plough disagreed with the contention that use of Zetia and Vytorin should be limited.
The patients were given either Vytorin, or a high dose of generic Zocor, known as simvastatin.
But Vytorin, which combines Zetia and the now generic Zocor, is a different matter.
But whereas 4, 000 patients get Vytorin and another 4, 000 get placebo, only 1, 000 get Zocor.
The same chemical is available in a combination pill with Merck's Zocor under the name Vytorin.
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