Vytorin Marketing Articles

Harvard, CT: 2004 was a good year for Claudia - until Halloween night. Claudia was at a party when she noticed she wasn't feeling well. She went to hospital several days later and found out that she had suffered a heart attack. Her doctor put her on Vytorin, and she remained on it for three years, until she had a stroke. If the Vytorin was working as it was meant to, would she still have had a stroke?

Boise, ID: Stephen, a 57-year old police officer, is the picture of health. He cycles regularly, works out regularly, has never smoked, and doesn't drink. About two years ago he went to his doctor for a routine physical, and his cholesterol levels were found to be very high. So his doctor put him Vytorin.

Chesterfield: VA: A year and half after being on Vytorin, Richard had to undergo emergency triple bypass surgery. His doctor had put him on Vytorin in July 2005, around the time the new cholesterol drug became available. But for eight years prior to that Richard had taken Zocor (simvistatin), one of the two drugs actually contained in the Vytorin pill.

Tiffin, OH: Shelva's husband, Raymond, had to go to hospital recently to have his stent replaced. Raymond has taken Vytorin for two years, and began taking the block-buster anti-cholesterol drug just before he had is original stent put in. According to the claims of the makers of Vytorin, Raymond's cholesterol should have been reduced, so much so in fact that he wouldn't need a new stent in such short order, if at all. But that's not what happened. Vytorin didn't reduce either Raymond's cholesterol levels, or those of his wife, who was also taking the drug.

Chicago, IL: The message could not have been clearer. At a major cardiology conference Sunday in Chicago, a gathering of 5,000 of the country's leading cardiologists were told unequivocally that cholesterol drugs Vytorin and Zetia should only be used as a therapy of last resort, given the now-widely-held view that the two drugs may not work.

Kenilworth, NJ: Since the results of the ENHANCE clinical tests for Merck/Schering-Plough's Vytorin combination anti-cholesterol drug were released in mid-January, sales of the drug have plunged as much as 17 percent. That's because the ENHANCE results showed that the $3-a-pill Vytorin, which combines Merck's Zetia with generic simvastatin, did no better than inexpensive simvastatin alone at lowering users' arterial plaque, and thus their risk for stroke or heart attack.

Parachute, CO: Melissa Cruz's father was diagnosed with diabetes in 1996. That's why today she continues to wonder why in 2002 his doctor prescribed him Merck/Schering-Plough's Zocor, then added Zetia about a year later, and again in 2007—the same combination of anti-cholesterol drugs used in the companies' Vytorin.

St. George, UT: About two years ago, Deloy's doctor prescribed Vytorin to lower his cholesterol. "My doctor was taking it as well so that was good enough for me," says Deloy. "Then I saw ads on TV about how great it was and that reassured me even more—it takes care of what your mum gave you and what your wife gives you." But Vytorin didn't give. In fact, it took.

Dalton, GA: Until a year ago, Larry Matthews had a normal life in this area near the Georgia-Tennessee border. He was physically active at home and at work, and like many men of a certain age, was keeping an eye on his cholesterol and blood pressure. That was before Vytorin, the combination Zetia/Zocor (simvastatin) anti-cholesterol drug from Merck/Schering-Plough, changed things for the worse.

Cleveland, OH: They proved endearing to some, downright obnoxious to others. But the most annoying aspect of the allegedly fraudulent Vytorin TV ads featuring actors dressed to look like food, was that the ads promised the moon, while the product itself appears to have delivered little more than a lump of coal.