Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb lose patent protection on Zocor and Pravachol next year, removing any incentive.
But Merck is doing that big Vytorin versus Zocor study, a giant clinical trial called IMPROVE-IT.
FORBES: Merck To Pay $688 Million To Shareholders For Delaying Vytorin Results
Adding Zetia to Zocor, he said, might lower cholesterol levels without reducing heart attacks and strokes.
FORBES: Merck To Pay $688 Million To Shareholders For Delaying Vytorin Results
So adding Zetia to Zocor in that study still should have resulted in thinner arteries.
Vytorin combines Zocor with a newer drug called Zetia that adds additional cholesterol-lowering oomph.
The Vytorin combo is better at lowering cholesterol than either Zetia or Zocor alone.
The best hope for that will come from combining Zetia with Merck's cholesterol pill Zocor.
But the results weren't much better than what you'd expect from Zocor alone, Blumenthal says.
The FDA also gave a list of drugs with which Zocor should not be prescribed.
FORBES: FDA Limits High-Dose Zocor, Backing Earlier Concerns For Second-Most Prescribed Drug
One potential winner is a combination of Zocor with another already-marketed cholesterol medicine, Zetia.
Vytorin combines Zetia with Zocor in a combo pill to get an even bigger cholesterol-lowering wallop.
LDL, the bad cholesterol, was cut 50% on Lipitor, compared with 41% on Zocor.
Bad cholesterol, or LDL, was cut 50% on Lipitor, compared to 41% on Zocor.
It also helps that by 2007, Zocor and Pravachol will be available in cheap generic forms.
The Zetia-Zocor combo is sold under the name Vytorin, which is, itself, a blockbuster.
Until recently, Vioxx, for arthritis, and Zocor, for cholesterol, delivered much of Merck's growth.
The patients were given either Vytorin, or a high dose of generic Zocor, known as simvastatin.
But Vytorin, which combines Zetia and the now generic Zocor, is a different matter.
But whereas 4, 000 patients get Vytorin and another 4, 000 get placebo, only 1, 000 get Zocor.
The same chemical is available in a combination pill with Merck's Zocor under the name Vytorin.
It means a lot more to our growth potential than some additional sales of Zocor.
Merck is now beginning to market Vytorin, which combines Zocor with another cholesterol-lowering drug.
In that study, Lipitor did not have the muscle side effects seen in this Zocor trial.
Merck is losing patent protection in some countries on Zocor, its top-selling cholesterol medication.
Medicines such as Lipitor, Zocor and Pravachol cut down on heart attacks and save lives.
If Vytorin works better than Zocor, it will be evidence that they are right.
In 2008, an artery-imaging study failed to show that Vytorin prevented atherosclerosis better than Zocor alone.
In a press release and conference call on Dec. 5, Merck admitted that Vioxx and Zocor would be hurt.
Trying to promote both Zocor and the Zocor-Zetia duo "is not a realistic strategy, " says Sanford C.
Controversy over whether the 80 mg Zocor dose caused more muscle problems that competitors is not new.
FORBES: FDA Limits High-Dose Zocor, Backing Earlier Concerns For Second-Most Prescribed Drug
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