Vytorin
Pharmaceutical companies Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp are being sued in at least four states in the US for their cholesterol-lowering drug, Vytorin. The two companies collaborated on a joint venture to combine Schering-Plough’s Zetia and Merck’s Zocor, which makes Vytorin. The plaintiffs are suing the makers of Vytorin for marketing it as more effective than other generic drugs when they had known it had no extra significant benefits.
Zetia pushes down cholesterol levels via decreasing the absorption of cholesterol in the intestinal tract. Other typical cholesterol-lowering drugs, also called statins, focus on the liver instead. Zocor is a statin. However, the combination of these two drugs did not, in fact, lower cholesterol more than other similar, inexpensive ones. Vytorin reportedly costs about 60 per cent more than other brands. Also, the defendants claimed that this drug reduced arterial plaque but they failed to make public they had findings that showed Zetia was not capable of decreasing arterial plaque.
New York attorney David Rheingold is seeking a class action status for other Vytorin users in the Southern District of New York. What sparked this suit was his mother who took Vytorin from 2005 to 2007. The suit charges that Vytorin had no benefit to those taking it so their health insurance company or Medicare should be compensated.
In a related class action suit, The Rosen Law Firm announced on January 24 2008 that they are filing a class action lawsuit representing all purchasers of Schering-Plough Corp who bought stock from July 24 2006 to January 14 2008.
The suit charges that Schering-Plough Corp made false and misleading financial statements regarding its two leading cholesterol drugs Vytorin and Zetia, which led to artificially inflating its stock. It says that the financial success reported during the class period was based in part by Schering-Plough Corp’s manipulation of drug testing results for Vytorin and Zetia. The announcement of the class action suit by Vytorin users caused Schering-Plough Corp’s shares to plunge, which in turn affected investors.
The above-mentioned suit has not been granted class action status as yet.
Related posts:
Sphere: Related Content
I took Vytorin for several years before finding that Vytorin caused my severe prostate inflammation. Short time after stopping Vytorin my PSA dropped from 11 to 1.9. The use of Vytorin caused me time, a lot of cost (apart the cost of the medication itself), been submitted to dangerous biopsies and tremendous distress since the the lab test indicated high risk of cancer. All this due to the use of an insufficiently tested medication, that actually it does even reduces the artery plugging that the manufacturer advertises. Who is protecting us?
We hear you Jorge. Thanks for your comment about how Vytorin affected your health. Maybe you could contact David Rheingold, the lawyer who first filed this case, as he is seeking class action status and would be looking other plaintiffs.
His website is Rheingold, Valet, Rheingold, Shkolnik, & McCartney LLP.
We hope you’ve found this information useful.
Has anyone else had an issue with the prostate on taking Vytorin?
I don’t know anyone personally who had this same problem, but there is a list of patients who reported negative side effects of Vytorin here:
http://www.patientsville.com/medication/vytorin2_side_effects.htm
My husband has taken Vytorin since 2004. He now has an prostate inflammation a high PSA and is facing a prostate biopsy. He also has be newly diagnosed with Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma.