Vytorin Lawsuits Over Low Cholesterol Claims
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You know the Vytorin commercials – comparing Fettucini Alfredo to your Uncle Alfredo – both are sources of high cholesterol, the ads said. Food and family are both to blame.
Now Merck & Co and partner, Schering-Plough Corp are facing a probe by the Department of Justice about whether the promotion of Vytorin made false claims. Specifically, investigators will seek reimbursements to federal health care programs if the drug makers are found to have made false advertising claims to doctors and patients.
So far 35 state attorneys general are involved in the investigation. And since January, Merck has been served with about 140 class-action lawsuits which also allege consumer fraud. Former customers allege that the companies withheld significant findings from doctors about the medications effectiveness in reducing plaque that leads to heart attack or stroke.
In January, the two companies finally released the results of a long awaited study called Enhance, that showed that price Vytorin didn’t do the job of reducing plaque buildup any better than its second component, a generic cholesterol drug called Zocor which costs about one-third as much.
That led to questions whether the companies deliberately delayed releasing the study's results to boost sales of Vytorin and Zetia, a charge the companies have denied.
Vytorin and its component, Zetia have been blockbuster drugs in the cholesterol market. Their sales last year reached $5.2 billion, but sales are off about 15 percent since last fall.
Those who have filed lawsuits want to have medical monitoring.
Merck says it is cooperating with the DOJ investigators request for information. "We take this matter very seriously," Skip Irvine, a spokesman said to AP. "We're cooperating with the request for information that the Justice Department is seeking."
Meanwhile the commercials about Uncle Alfredo were pulled from the airwaves in January of this year. #