There have long been suspicions, but it was still very disturbing to learn this week that a heavily promoted cholesterol-lowering drug had flunked a clinical trial of its effectiveness in reducing fatty deposits in arteries. The two companies that reap billions from the drug had been cynically sitting on the results for more than a year.
The drug, Zetia, and a combination pill that contains it, Vytorin, are made by Merck and Schering-Plough and used by millions of patients. They generated more than $5 billion in sales last year. The companies sponsored a clinical trial of the drug’s effectiveness in hopes that positive results would strengthen their marketing efforts.
The trial was conducted in 720 European patients with genes that cause abnormally high cholesterol levels. For two years, the patients received either Zocor, an older cholesterol drug, or Vytorin, a combination of Zocor and Zetia. The assumption was that Vytorin would reduce the growth of fatty plaques — a risk factor for heart attacks and strokes — more than Zocor alone. As it turned out, the plaques grew almost twice as fast in patients taking the Vytorin.
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