High dose vitamin outperforms Zetia?

Courtesy of WSJ

Tongues wagged after word came out last month that an independent study comparing Merck and Schering-Plough’s cholesterol drug Zetia with a rival treatment had abruptly ended. There was no explanation why the trial was stopped early. Speculation followed. Several analysts now are saying the study was probably halted because the rival drug, Abbott’s Niaspan, outperformed Zetia. “It is nearly uniform thinking among the industry contacts we know that Niaspan likely beat Zetia,” Sanford Bernstein’s Tim Anderson wrote in a note today.

Zetia, of course, is a component of Merck and Schering-Plough’s cholesterol-fighting medication Vytorin. The definitive word will not come until the researchers speak at the American Heart Association’s meeting in November, according to the analysts. Other possible outcomes are that Zetia performed better than Niaspan, or that the drugs fared equally. A Merck spokesman said Merck and Schering-Plough did not sponsor the study, which the researchers initiated, and the companies don’t know the results from the trial. “At this point, the results are not available to us nor are they in the public domain,” the spokesman said. Spokeswomen for Abbott said the company hadn’t seen the results either and had no comment. Some previous studies have not treated Vytorin and Zetia kindly. Prescriptions have fallen off in the wake of the brouhaha that followed the delayed release of findings from a study called Enhance and the safety concerns surrounding the findings in the so-called Seas study.

Steve - we should not rush to judgment. However, if Niaspan (high dose niacin), which has been an effective and inexpensive option for cholesterol and HDL modification forever, did outperform Zetia, all I can say is for shame, for shame.