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Combination statin
and an azetidinones which blocks absorption of cholesterol in the small intestine has been shown to be good at two things:
causing more side effects and improving the bottom line of Merck and Schering-Plough. For nearly two years the FDA allowed the companies to sitt on the results of a trial
study which showed that the combination was no better than the statin alone. http://www.worstpills.org/public/page.cfm?op_id=78 Drug
Companies, FDA Lagged in Warning Public About Zetia, Vytorin Statement by Sidney Wolfe, M.D., Director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group |
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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 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 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, 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 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.” Those who have a financial interest in the outcome manipulate the results, Major study finds that all 37 journal articles positive effects over stated; the average was 32%. Statins cause erectile dysfunction, cognitive imparement, and cancer. Lipitor (2011) lifetime sales $131
billion, tops all drugs. Plavix at
$60 billion is second.
STATINS CANCER Link 52% short term LA Times, Health section, Vytorin, the
combination drug (simvastatin (better known by its commercial name Zocor) and ezetimibe--known as Zetia) prescribed to lower
cholesterol, sustained another blow today, when the author of a major clinical trial announced that the medication had failed
to drive down hospitalization and death due to heart failure in patients with narrowing of the aortic valve. In the process,
researchers in Today's findings
suggested something more ominous: the incidence of cancer -- and of dying of cancer -- was significantly higher in the patients
taking Vytorin. Altogether, 67 patients on placebo developed cancer during the trial.
Among subjects on Vytorin, 102 developed cancers of various kinds.* This
is the second adverse press—the first being in March 08, when the ENHANCE trial found that Vytorin fared no better than
a placebo at reducing plaque buildup on the walls of patients' arteries.* * Comments by jk Simvastatin (Zocor) is off patent. Thus in a scramble for profits a combination drug (on patent) was introduced. Direct to consumer market cost $155 in 07—mainly TV ads. * The pressing issue is that since the development of Statins, the very first animal studies in the 60s it has been known that Statins increase the incidents of cancer. However, nearly all studies done thereafter have not included cancer. *
Several studies have failed to find a reduction in the build of plaque, even thought the statins including Zocor, reduce
EXTENDED RELEASE NIACIN IS A SAFER, AND A MORE EFFECTIVE WAY TO LOWER MI RISK! |