Just read the Forbes article from the journalist who admits to writing over 100 articles trashing Zetia who now feels he was wrong all those years - retired rep here who did very well w/ Zetia with S/P - any renewed marketing effort behind this misunderstood drug?? The link is on the front page of C/P.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2015/04/16/i-spent-eight-years-bashing-a-heart-drug-now-i-wonder-should-i-take-it/ "...When a Merck executive, Soren Bo Christensen, protested the lack of communication with Kastelein, Enrico Veltri, the head of cardiovascular research at Schering, replied: “Soren is a prick. How’s that for staying calm. Tell him to f— off.”... ______________________________________________________ Sure, Dr Veltri. Blame it on the researcher, not on your half-assed trial design. Your expletives show your best side. The problem began with going for "cheap" instead of "quality" trial design-- Positive impact in earlier surrogate heart disease endpoint trials (IMT, Angiograms, etc.) required HUGE in total/LDL cholesterol to show ANY significant "regression" of atherosclerosis. So reducing cholesterol by another 15% versus simvastatin alone wasn't likely to show positive outcomes. The negative findings were no surprise, and mediocre corporate wannabes like Rick Veltri should be blamed for setting Vytorin up for failure with a silly surrogate end point trial. For years, other cholesterol-lowering drugs (e.g. Lipitor) leeched off the positive results of the Simva Survival Study without penalty. MSP should have conducted a real VYTORIN clinical outcomes trial from the outset. They paid the price for taking the easy road and bombed big time.
Iprove-It great study. Maybe the lawyers will make it available for promotion after the drugs go off patent.
