SUMMARY: Merck faced with their block-buster statin, Zocor (simvastatin) was about to go off patent, so they teamed up with
Schering-Plough for to market a combination drug, Vytorin, touted as better than either drug.
Their study of this combination drug was showed it to be ineffective was not, completed in April of 2006, however,
the study was not released until January of 2008. Second impropriety, the supposedly
neutral American Heart Association (AHA) is financially connected to Big Pharma: its
directors are employed by Big Pharma, including their president who is a consultant
for Merck (the maker of VIOXX and Zocor); second the AHA receives millions form Big Pharma, and finally, a page on the AHA website that appears to be authored by the AHA was in fact authored by Merck. The net result was hundreds of millions in sales for Vytorin, which costs over $100
per month to take. These people could have been taking a generic version of Zocor
for under $10/month--jk.
From FiercePharma, a industry website
http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/vytorin-defenders-funded-by-drugmakers/2008-01-24?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=link
Remember how the American Heart Association rushed to the defense of
Vytorin after the results of the Enhance study were released last week? The group issued a statement saying that the study showed
the drug to be as safe as the competition, and patients shouldn't rush to judgment.
Well, now several news outlets are pointing out that the association gets almost $2 million annually from Merck
and Schering-Plough, which make Vytorin; that AHA president Dan Jones has been a Merck
consultant; and that among the $2 million in contributions was a $350,000 sponsorship of a cholesterol page on the association's
website--a page that was difficult to distinguish from AHA's other content. In response, the association revamped that web
page to make its sponsorship more evident
Too late, though, for the House Energy and Commerce
Committee, which now says it will probe the relationship between AHA and Merck/Schering-Plough. The committee also plans to look into
links between the companies and the American College of Cardiology, which also issued a statement last week
telling patients not to stop taking Vytorin without consulting a doctor. For the record, both groups say their drug company
funding had nothing to do with their public statements.
Heart Group Backs Drug Made by Ally
New York Times, at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/24/business/24heart.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
By Stephanie Saul, January 24,2008
After a study
last week showed Vytorin, an expensive combination of two drugs for cholesterol, worked no better than cheap Zocor alone in reducing artery plaque that can lead to heart attacks, the American Heart Association came to the drug’s defense.In a statement issued on Jan. 15, the day after the report’s release, the heart association
said the study was too limited to draw conclusions about Vytorin’s ability to reduce heart attacks or deaths compared
to Zocor alone. The group advised patients not to abruptly stop taking it without consulting their doctors. What the association did not note in its statement, however, was that the group receives nearly $2 million
a year from Merck/Schering-Plough Pharmaceuticals, the joint venture that markets Vytorin. Dr. Daniel
W. Jones, the president of the American Heart Association, who was quoted in the Jan. 15 statement, said Wednesday that his
group did not typically mention its drug company sponsors when issuing news releases with advice to patients.
The House
Energy and Commerce Committee plans Thursday to send letters to the association and Merck/Schering-Plough asking about their
relationship, a spokeswoman for the committee said. A letter will also be sent to the American College of Cardiology, a much smaller group, which also receives drug industry money and
which also released a statement last week advising patients not to stop taking Vytorin without consulting their doctors.
Both organizations
said Wednesday that the industry financing had nothing to do with their statements, which they said they issued in response
to public confusion about the meaning of the Vytorin study. Merck/Schering-Plough also said it had played no role in the statements
by the two groups.
The letters
from the Energy and Commerce Committee are part of a broader committee investigation into the research and marketing of Vytorin.
Vytorin,
which can sell for more than $100 for a 30-day supply, combines the widely used cholesterol-lowering drug Zocor with another
cholesterol-lowering drug, Zetia. Zocor alone is available in a generic form that can sell for less than $6 for a 30-day supply.
The medical
study, called Enhance, was the subject of a front-page article in The New York Times on Jan. 15. The article also reported
that Merck and Schering-Plough were being criticized for not releasing results of the Enhance clinical trial sooner. The trial ended in April 2006.
The joint
venture of the companies, formed in 2000, helps underwrite the budget of the American Heart Association, and its nearly $2
million a year in contributions includes $350,000 to sponsor a cholesterol page on the group’s Web site, according to Dr. Rose Marie Robertson, the association’s chief science officer.
Dr. Sidney M. Wolfe, the head of the Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, a consumer advocacy group, noted that the drug industry underwrites
many professional medical organizations and said such funding raised questions about the groups’ objectivity.
“The
American Heart Association gets paid and essentially does the company’s bidding,” Dr. Wolfe said.
He also criticized
the link between the American Heart Association Web site’s “cholesterol” page and another page: “Food & Family, the 2 sources of bad cholesterol.” Only a reader who looks carefully realizes he has moved
from a nonprofit site to the site of a corporate drug maker. Another click and the “Food & Family” page viewer
is on the Vytorin Web site.
Both Dr.
Jones and Dr. Robertson, who said the association’s Web site was being changed Wednesday night to make the sponsorship
clearer, said the organization strived for transparency on its Web page.
“We
actually have a policy,” Dr. Robertson said. “You’ve got to have two clicks before you get to any drug information.”
Dr. Jones,
who is also dean of the school of medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, said: “We certainly don’t want to ever give the impression that any content that’s put
in any place by a pharmaceutical company is delivered or endorsed by the A.H.A. If there is a lack of clarity on that, I will
work with our team to make it clear.”
