Doctors are voting with their prescription pads: They're writing fewer scrips for Vytorin and Zetia.
A Mount Laurel, N.J., company that tracks physician prescribing behavior said that primary-care doctors use of Vytorin, a drug marketed by Merck & Co. Inc. and Schering-Plough, has declined from 15 percent of new treatment decisions to 5 percent.
Cardiologists tracked by ImpactRX Inc. reported a decline from 15 percent of new treatment decisions to 8 percent.
Those drops shouldn't be surprised coming 10 days after the release a study by Merck and Schering-Plough that Vytorin, which combines simvastatin, one of the first cholesterol-lowering drugs developed, with Zetia, a newer generation cholesterol fighter, was not more effective than the generic simvastatin alone in lowering reducing build-up of plaque in the carotid artery.
But John Cain, vice president of marketing at ImpactRx, called the declines "puzzling" given that the American College of Cardiology recommended that doctors and patients do no make "major clinical decisions" solely on the basis of the recently released study.
In a statement he says:
The College specifically noted, 'There should be no reason for patients to panic,' but the data certainly indicate a change in attitude towards these drugs has occurred.
A spokesman for Merch and Schering-Plough told the Associated Press the companuies have pulled the "people who look like food" ads that have been running on television. Advertising Age said the latest turns in the Vytorin tale are "fanning the flames of public mistrust for the $5 billion direct-to-consumer drug industry."
