A lawsuit seeking class-action certification was filed against Merck and Schering-Plough in federal court in Seattle, alleging the drugmakers violated state consumer protection laws arising from the sale and marketing of Zetia and Vytorin. The suit claims the companies have known since 2006 that the combination of drugs - Vytorin includes Zetia and Zocor - was no more effective than the generic version of Zocor in blocking the fatty arterial plaques that can cause heart attack and stroke, as the drugmakers led consumers to believe.
The lawyers who filed the suit charge Schering-Plough promoted Zetia heavily, advertising that by adding it to a statin treatment, patients could more effectively lower LDL cholesterol which they claim would, in turn, reduce plaque in patients' arteries. But they maintain the companies had prior information that refuted that claim.
Earlier this week, Merck and Schering-Plough released the Enhance results, which intended to show a correlation between lowered LDL levels and fatty plaques in the arteries, which can cause heart attacks and strokes. While the study showed that Vytorin lowered LDL cholesterol rates better than Zocor alone, it also showed that the fatty arterial plaques actually grew somewhat faster in patients taking Zetia along with Zocor than in those taking Zocor alone, according to Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro. This is the same law firm, by the way, that has filed average wholesale price lawsuits in federal court in Boston.
The suit also calls into question the timing of the study's release. According to the complaint, Merck and Schering-Plough knew the results of the trials but delayed sharing the findings with patients for nearly two years, but didn't change its marketing approach. Congress, by the way, is investigating the same allegation. The lawsuit seeks the return of money to purchasers of Vytorin and Zetia, but won't seek relief for personal injuries that anyone may allege resulted from taking Vytorin or Zetia.
8 Comments
any other increases in side effects
Please provide a Tel # or e-mail address to receive information on the class action suite for Zetia and Vytorin.
Thank you
My father was taking this medication and took a massive stroke due to a blood clot. We feel it may have been caused by this medication. My father passed away on dec 30th 2007 after suffering a stroke on dec 23rd 2007 and a second one on dec 29th. My father had just gotten blood work done three weeks prior and was told he was in good health and to keep up the good work. Can you help me please find away to find out if this drug in the cause of losing my father?
knavin@gmail.com
i was taking vytorin since 2004 and in november 17 2006 i had to have a quadruple bypass. this must have realy been good medicine.
i was taking vytorin since 2004 and on november 2006 had to have a quadruple bypass. must have been some good meds
My best friend, died at 72 after 6 months of vytorin..its a killer drug. He suffered total-body endless pain not even minimally controlled by all forms of meds. Unable to walk, 8 doctors and two 30 day phases in the hospital later merited \removal of his gallbladder...then his spleen ? High temps with severe shivers day and night. A huge medical question baffled even older doctors; what to do to help this patient. Well...his heart stopped! Vytorin, it is now revealed, does not reduce plaque in carotids..it does in fact increase plague. Further, the muscle deterioration is for real... a non-drinker, non smoker healthy and on a good diet, dies at the hands of a killer drug with hidden trial-test results known to all including the FDA ????
Vytorin killed my best friend...too sad⁄
Eight doctors in charge, removal of gallbladder, then the spleen. High fevers and severe chills, then total body pain uncontrolled by heavy pain killers, followed by weakness in limbs, unable to walk unaided. No doubt muscle deterioration set in. This non smoker nondrinker, otherwise very healthy did not have to die. Vytorin, the pill known to increase plaque in carotids (an item known by the manufacturer and hidden from the public with the aid of the FDA) does have deadly side-effects! It destroys, maims, renders medical professional into robotic deadheads...hidden behind what the industry of chemicals pushed on society. Ugly...its time for all to file suits for damages. They are real!!!