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Published on Tuesday, January 29, 2008 by CommonDreams.org

Pay No Attention to That Clinical Data or Squandered Tax Payer

Dollars for Medicaid Drugs

by Martha Rosenberg

“The American Heart Association is cautioning patients if they

stop taking Vytorin abruptly, Schering-Plough and Merck’s stock price will

fall.â€

 

That’s how a cartoon showing a news anchor would read after

revelations that the American Heart Association–which receives nearly $2

million a year from Vytorin makers Merck and Schering-Plough–and the American

College of Cardiology told patients to stay on the drug despite a recent damning

study.

 

Cholesterol drug, Vytorin was hyped as treating “cholesterol from

two sources: food and family†but found to work no better than lower priced

Zocor in the Enhance clinical study whose results were released in January.

 

Merck and Schering-Plough have pulled Vytorin ads, prescriptions are

down 22 percent and federal and state law makers are asking

What-did-they-know-and-when-did-they-know-it? questions of the pharma giants.

 

Rep. John D. Dingell (D-MI), Chairman of the House Energy and

Commerce Committee which requisitioned the study results, and Rep. Bart Stupak

(D-MI), Chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee now want to

know if an outside panel Merck and Schering-Plough convened which changed the

“end points†or purpose of the study to finesse the bad results is guilty of

manipulating data and whether the Enhance study had a data safety monitoring

board.

 

Dingell and Stupak also want to know more about the Merck and

Schering-Plough-funded, $350,000 “cholesterol page†on the American Heart

Association web site.

 

Months before the HRT-implicating Women’s Health Initiative (WHI),

the American Heart Association ran an article paid for by Wyeth-Ayerst Research

in its journal Circulation that said hormone therapy had “no significant

effect on the risk for stroke among postmenopausal women with coronary

disease.â€

 

They’ve also requested the amount of Medicare and Medicaid dollars

spent on Vytorin since April 2006, arousing memories of the overpriced and over

prescribed to the elderly drug, Vioxx.

 

The state of New York, for example, spent $21 million for Medicaid

prescriptions for Vytorin in the last two years–it costs $3 a pill compared

with 3 cents a pill for Zocor–prompting New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo

to also launch an investigation.

 

“Drug companies are on notice that concealing critical information

about life-saving prescription drugs, profiting at the expense of patients’

health, and wasting taxpayer dollars, is simply unacceptable,†said Cuomo.

 

Cuomo also has questions about why Carrie Smith Cox, a

Schering-Plough executive vice president, sold 900,000 company shares for $28

million on April 20, according to an SEC filing.

 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is also reviewing the Enhance

study–who remembers when FDA was the first not last responder?–though it’s

not advising doctors to stop prescribing the drug because of the clinical belly

flop.

 

Similarly, many doctors the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette interviewed

said they were keeping patients on Vytorin despite being “inundated†with

calls from patients asking if they should continue. The data are not all in yet,

they say.

 

But on the industry site cafepharma.com, an anonymous drug salesman

met a different reception from a doctor he calls on.

 

“Got my ass chewed about if I knew… when was I going to give him

the head’s up … he looks like an ass in front of his patients,†posts the

drug rep days after the Enhance study results hit.

 

“I just nodded and said that I got the information just about the

same time he did and that I’m heartsick over it. LDL lowering more than

Zocor!! I got thrown out.â€

 

One patient in Little Rock came out and asked his doctor the

question that must be on many Vytorin takers’ minds. “f they say that

‘It’s not doing any good,’ then why take it ?†Ronald Hesselschwerdt,

74, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

We don’t know if the doctor answered the stock price will fall if

you don’t.

Martha Rosenberg is a cartoonist for the Evanston Roundtable in

Evanston, Illinois.

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12 Comments so far

1.. dlnelson7 January 29th, 2008 1:25 pm

Whenever a doctor prescribes something grill him.

1. What studies were done.

2. What were the parameters.

3. What other drugs (possibly older) could do the same thing. (see

1 and 2)

4. Who paid for the studies.

5. What have been the negative/positive reports on this drug.

If s/he can’t answer ask why s/he is prescribing it?

2.. Daniel David January 29th, 2008 2:05 pm

You’ll like your FDA a lot better with appointments and guidance

from Obama than you’ve liked it under Bush, or even Bill Clinton. In America,

we really don’t have to be run over by our drug industry. It’s our choice.

Elections have consequences. Create one.

3.. Barn Burner January 29th, 2008 2:08 pm

The problem dlnelson7 with asking your Doctor all those questions

is: he doesnt know. His time is spent putting patients through his office

one-per-15 minutes and he relies on the drug reps to keep him informed and to

make sure he knows about the trip to Hawaii the company is paying for. That, I

admit, is a broad brush I paint doctors with and there are exceptions of course

but it describes the majority.

4.. wilmoor January 29th, 2008 2:18 pm

We’re a nation of the overweight, obese couch potatoes looking

for the easy fix when our lifestyle causes high colesteral, heart problems,

diabetes, and all the rest. Then we can pick and chose from the dumb box which

drug to tell our doctors we want to have to fix those problems.

If we threw out the dumb box, ate right and exercised, the

majority of us wouldn’t need the drugs, and that would solve a lot of

problems.

5.. Doom n Gloom January 29th, 2008 2:26 pm

Corporations and investors should fail if their products are

deficient or harmful. Socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor is not

a workable solution.

6.. John F. Butterfield January 29th, 2008 2:46 pm

What we need is a drug that will help us break our TV addiction.

Just kidding.

7.. tonkatsu January 29th, 2008 4:58 pm

The Number one source of Cholesterol?

Isn’t that McDonalds ?

8.. merryoldsoul January 29th, 2008 6:26 pm

The Fat Police, are on the loose,,,,the fat-O-meter, at

Mickey-D’s says No Fries for you you fat ass, look at you! with your stretch

pants you look like a bag of smased apples, wake up and don’t smell anything

for a month.

9.. expatincebu January 29th, 2008 7:13 pm

There is NO proof that cholesterol has adverse health effects. All

of this is just AMA and drug companies making money off of American ignorance

and love of taking medications. Before I left the U.S. my doctor told me my

cholesterol was to high and I needed to take drugs to bring it down. I looked at

the side effects of the drugs and told him to go to hell. U.S. doctors prescribe

drugs because it makes money for them, end of story.

10.. newlight January 29th, 2008 8:46 pm

NO PRESCRIPTION DRUGS [duh]! I beat malignant melonoma without

‘em, you?

11.. Paranoid Pessimist January 29th, 2008 9:16 pm

Hippie-radical “Investigative Satirist†Paul Krassner was once

asked the secret of his longevity (he’s in his seventies now) and he replied

“I don’t take legal drugs.†I used to be like that, but as you get along

in years and begin to feel the Grim Ripper nibbling at your inner MP3s, it

becomes more and more difficult say no to pills that seem to actually relieve

symptoms. Ah sweet misery of youth.

12.. shakker January 29th, 2008 11:53 pm

Drug companies should be to make every scrap of information public

when they seek FDA approval. They are protected by the patent issue by the

people through the government, therefore they should have no secrets.

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