BMJ  2008;336:797 (12 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.39545.529028.DB

News

Company’s decision to lengthen lipid lowering trial causes controversy

Jeanne Lenzer

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The decision to extend enrolment of participants in a lipid lowering trial that was set to come to an end in 2011 because the target for enrolments had already been exceeded is causing controversy.

The delay follows an earlier row about the delayed reporting of the results of another study of the same drug, ezetimibe, which is manufactured jointly by Merck and Schering-Plough and sold singly as Ezetrol in the United Kingdom and as Zetia in the United States, or in combination with simvastatin as Inegy in the UK and Vytorin in the US (BMJ 2008;336:180-1; doi: 10.1136/bmj.39468.610775.DB).

Merck and Schering-Plough published a news release on 28 March stating that they will extend enrolment in IMPROVE-IT (improved reduction of outcomes: vytorin efficacy international trial) to determine whether ezetimibe added to simvastatin "will translate into clinical benefit" compared with simvastatin alone, according to the trial’s chairman, Eugene Braunwald.

Merck . . . [Full text of this article]


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Unreported cholesterol drug data released by company
Jeanne Lenzer
BMJ 2008 336: 180-181. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

The Failure of the ENHANCE Trial: Time for Evidence-based Medicine to Step in
brian scott peskin, et al.
bmj.com, 8 May 2008 [Full text]
Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ