Revealing What Drug Companies Wouldn't Tell You

Big Drug-Makers Merck and Schering-Plough Withheld Test Results for Two Years

Congress today sent letters requesting that Food and Drug Administration commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach and executives of the drug companies Merck and Schering-Plough hand over documents detailing the marketing campaign for the cholesterol drug Vytorin.

The results of a clinical trial released Monday found that Vytorin did not reduce the buildup of harmful plaque in arteries any better than a much cheaper generic drug.

But the study was completed in April 2006. Typically, results are released in three to six months. Merck and Schering-Plough, the two companies that developed and marketed the drug, withheld test results for 19 months.

Additional clinical trials are often started after a drug is on the market so companies can make bigger claims and gain more market share. In Vytorin's case, it didn't work out that way. "The company's goal in doing this kind of study is to show their drug was better than the alternative drug. And they failed to do that," said Dr. Brian Strom of the University of Pennsylvania.

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More at link:
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=4149594&page=1

:sarcasm: