Reading Between the Vytorin - Zocor - Zetia Headlines

Looks like Merck is in hot water once again -- and if you have ever paid for a prescription for Vytorin, Zocor or Zetia, whether from your own pocket or through your health insurance, then you have paid for their deceit.

I say "once again" because it was Merck that hid the bad news that resulted from drug trials for its drug Vioxx -- which eventually caused a handful (or more) of people to die. They've already lost the lawsuit on that one and are paying out billions for the deception. If you are a loved one of someone who died, well then, billions doesn't quite cut it, does it?

And now -- turns out Merck and Shering Plough Corporation have worked together to pull the wool over the eyes of doctors and patients alike. Makes me glad I'm not a stockholder, at the very least.

Here's the problem: Many people with high cholesterol were given a generic drug called simvastatin. It's the generic version of Zocor, but because it's generic, it costs much less than branded Zocor. Once a drug goes generic, then the company that developed it, in this case Merck, begins to lose all that income from the branded drug because its patent has run out.

Another drug called Zetia was also developed to lower cholesterol. Its manufacturer and developer, Shering Plough, was having trouble making any inroads into the market because simvastatin was available. Smart doctors and patients continued using the generic. There didn't seem to be any proof that Zetia, an expensive branded drug, would be better than generic simvastatin.

So those executive decision-makers from Merck and Shering Plough put on their creative thinking caps and though ....gee.... why not put the two drugs together, tell everyone they would get twice as much protection, start selling expensive branded drugs again -- and share the profits?

So they did. The new, combined, branded drug -- new patent and all -- was called Vytorin. The two companies, combined, then convinced thousands of cardiologists what a great idea it would be to prescribe those double whammy Vytorin pills. And all those folks who took simvistatin who got switched to Vytorin -- it turns out -- got taken for a ride.

Only when Merck and Shering Plough finally did the testing required, then delayed the findings, then switched up the goal of the study (called Enhance) -- lo and behold -- once the results were finally available, the professionals reviewed them -- and we learned we got took. At least all those doctors and patients who had been so well convinced -- they got took.

Stay tuned.... there will be more to this story, I'm sure. If I were one of those executives from either company, I would be ready to crawl under my rock. And if I were the Merck executive? I'd dig a six foot hole, and THEN roll a rock over it. Caught.

I'd categorize this one as pharma scam karma.

As for us patients? Once again, this calls for being keenly knowledgeable of what drugs we are being prescribed. In this case, I'm not sure what our doctors could have done to improve this situation. At this point, perhaps the best you can do if you take Vytorin is to ask your doctor if a generic will work for you. It will save you money, at least.

And don't forget, double checking our drugs, especially those newly prescribed, is always good practice.

Photo © Getty Images

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