The eDrugSearch Blog » Vytorin

Lipitor: 50 million prescriptions can’t be wrong, right?

Cary Byrd — Wed, 28 May 2008 01:46:04 +0000

Lipitor was the most frequently prescribed brand-name drug in the United States last year, with 50 million prescriptions being filled. Vytorin was right up there, with 20 million. Add in all the other statins and you’re up to an amazing 150 million.

As you might expect, we’ve had a fair amount of discussion in the eDrugSearch.com Community about statin drugs, which are used for the treatment of high cholesterol. People are most interested in understanding and comparing the benefits of Lipitor, Zocor and Crestor. Zocor is currently available in generic form in the U.S., but the other two drugs are not.

Vytorin, of course, is on the outs these days after research showed in January that this combination drug (essentially a combination of Zocor and Zetia) is no more effective than generic Zocor alone (simvastin).

One juicy morsel in John McCain’s recently released medical records is that he switched from Vytorin to simvastin after the study came out.

So, of the statins, should you go with Lipitor, Zocor or Crestor? As always, the reaction of individuals to different treatments varies widely, so what often happens is a doctor starts you on one, and if it’s ineffective or you experience side effects, he switches you to another.

Dr. Nicholas Browning provides a nice overview of the benefits of statins in this column in The Union newspaper of Grass Valley, Calif. A recent Houston Chronicle column, however, focuses more on the side effects of these drugs — principally muscle pain and weakness — and says that doctors too often downplay these negatives.

Although your doctor should help you decide which statin to try first, Crestor has been shown to be the most effective statin for lowering LDL cholesterol, followed by Lipitor and then Zocor. However, the side effects for Crestor may be more pronounced in some patients.

Unfortunately, even though your doctor may wish to put you on Crestor or Lipitor, insurance companies often push doctors hard to prescribe generics. We encourage you to use the best drug for you.

Merck and Schering-Plough: partners in slime

Cary Byrd — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:14:16 +0000

Oh what fun it is to cover Big Pharma. First we get the Wall Street Journal crediting Peter Rost and BrandweekNRX for breaking an insider trading scandal at Schering-Plough.

Then we get Merck and Schering-Plough pulling their popular “two sources of cholesterol” commercials from television because Vytorin apparently does not reduce the buildup of fatty plaque as claimed.

As Media Orchard puts it, there are

Two Ways to Get Egg on Your Face

1. You can crack one open.
2. You can be Merck CEO Richard Clark.

Ad Age: Drug companies are begging for heightened regulation

Cary Byrd — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 12:44:24 +0000

Double whammy for Big Pharma in Advertising Age today. First, a story headlined “Vytorin Ad Shame Taints Entire Marketing Industry” — an excerpt:

Reports that [as] Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. kept under wraps for more than a year findings that Vytorin does not deliver results it spent more than $100 million advertising to consumers is much more than a PR disaster for the drug’s co-marketers.

Coming on the heels of a New York Times story that Pfizer’s $2 billion drug Lyrica treats a condition, fibromyalgia, that a lot of doctors don’t think exists, the Vytorin news is fanning the flames of public mistrust for the $5 billion direct-to-consumer drug industry — and the ad business in general.

“The pharmas are in big trouble in terms of credibility,” said brand expert Rob Frankel, who runs his own consultancy at RobFrankel.com. “They’re just above Congress and used-car salesmen.”

Accompanying this story is an editorial headlined, “Drug Companies One Step Away From More Regulation.” In it, Ad Age warns:

If drug companies aren’t more careful, they’re going to come down with a case of regulatory pneumonia and the bad-publicity flu.

We’re firm believers that a company selling legal and safe products should be allowed to advertise them. But as is often the case, an ounce of prevention goes a long way. In particular, drug marketers would be wise to tread carefully when rushing the next blockbuster not only to market but onto the airwaves.

We understand that research isn’t cheap. And a blockbuster such a Viagra or a Lipitor goes a long way in paying for life-saving drugs. But what’s much more expensive than research and marketing is fighting lawsuits on numerous fronts or being silenced across the board by the government…

We know that research doesn’t pay for itself and that drug marketers need to make money, but those thinking of making the hard sell for new drugs should consider the physician’s motto: “First, do no harm.”

Lipitor approved for new uses

Cary Byrd — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 21:43:34 +0000

Pfizer has received approval to sell the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor, its number-one seller, under five new categories. According to reports, Lipitor

is now recommended for use in patients at high risk for cardiovascular conditions because of prior MI, heart surgery, or chest pain with evidence of atherosclerosis and to reduce the risk of non-fatal heart attacks and strokes.

The expanded label for the world’s top-selling prescription drug will also now include its approval for use in reducing the risks of hospitalization for heart failure. Lipitor is the first cholesterol-lowering drug to win approval for reducing such risks.

The approval comes as a result of a five-year study, ‘”Treating to New Targets (TNT),” involving 10,000 patients with heart disease and elevated LDL levels which compared Lipitor at its lowest and highest doses. It was found that patients taking 80 mg of Lipitor had a significant 22% reduction in the risk of major cardiovascular events compared with patients taking 10 mg. It was also found that the patients on the higher dose of Lipitor had a significant 26% reduction in the risk of hospitalization for heart failure.

This should provide Pfizer an advantage in Lipitor’s competition with Zocor, Pravachol, Zetia, Vytorin and Crestor.

The eDrugSearch Blog » Vytorin

Lipitor: 50 million prescriptions can’t be wrong, right?

Top 25 prescription drug searches for March 2008

Merck and Schering-Plough: partners in slime

Ad Age: Drug companies are begging for heightened regulation

Top 25 prescription medication searches for December 2007

Top 25 prescription drug searches

Lipitor approved for new uses