Tuesday, January 15, 2008

You May All Write In And Tell Me What A Wise Person I Am Now.

Why? Because back in November I wrote this:

ask yourself what Merck and Schering would be doing if they were looking at numbers that suggested Zetia and/or Vytorin were clearly lowering heart disease risk more than any other therapy. They'd have an ex-college cheerleader sales rep in every doctor's office in the country waving those numbers in front of their cleavage, that's what they'd be doing.


You see, Merck and Schering, far from deploying the cheerleader corps, was instead sitting on data from the Enhance trial, which had been completed over a year and a half ago. My point then was that this behavior, coupled with the fact that Merck and Schering tried to change the definition of what they were measuring, made me just a tad bit suspicious of what those numbers might say.

Today we have this:

Merck and Schering-Plough, which make the drug Zetia, and a pill that contains it, Vytorin, said Monday morning that Zetia had failed to benefit patients in a two-year trial that ended in April 2006.

In a press release, Merck and Schering said that not only did Zetia fail to slow the accumulation of fatty plaque in the arteries, it actually seemed to contribute to plaque formation — although by such a small amount that the finding could have been a result of chance.

Dr. Steven E. Nissen, the chairman of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic, said the results were “shocking.”


Shocking to you maybe professor egghead, but not to the readers of this blog. I am the wisest person in the universe. Give me a damn medal to show the world how smart I am.

“In light of today’s results, which were released nearly two years after the Enhance trial ended, it is easy to conclude that Merck and Schering-Plough intentionally sought to delay the release of this data,” said Representative Bart Stupak, Democrat of Michigan,

Ya think?

It's not all negative though, Schering used this whole episode to provide us with a teachable moment:

Lee Davies, a spokesman for Schering, said the delay was unrelated to the negative findings and that the companies had not known the results until two weeks ago.


For those of you who don't know the sound of bullshit, Lee Davies just gave you a textbook example. Bookmark that quote when you need an example of bullshit.

In the meantime, I shall look forward to the praise, laurels, and accolades of my grateful readership. I shall assume that you will realize that I am right not only in matters pharmaceutical, but most other subjects as well, including politics. So I shall expect none of you will vote for Hillary Clinton in your state's Democratic primary or caucus.

Because to vote for Hillary in your state's primary or caucus would be to doubt my wisdom. Ask Merck and Schering what happens when you find yourself on the other side of my wisdom.

7 comments:

Academic_FP said...

You are indeed, the wisest person on the planet.

Good job Drug Monkey!

I wonder if the Vytorin commercials shall continue?


-Academic-fp

Mother Jones RN said...

You are the smartest Drugmonkey in the world. But some of us knew that already.

MJ

Anonymous said...

It does not matter WHICH candidate is elected because they are stuck behind the 8 ball of cleaning up Bush's errors. Most conserv Dems. don't want a female OR a black prez. The republican caucus is drab at best. A former Baptist preacher and a conservative Mormon. I wonder where the conservative Jews will vote on this. If Ralph Nader ran again he would surely F**K up the whole mess. So give us your worldly insight on how you think this is all going go boil down; and, on a lighter note, one of your collegues said an idiot named her two children "orangejello" and "Lemmonjello". Maybe in the next genneration we will see a Xanax/alprazolam or an Ativan/lorazipam.

Anonymous said...

Ummm, I'm not sure I want my comment posted next to that of "eyedidnotdoit" because I don't want the stink of his cesspool polluting my fragrant little garden of love and admiration for DrugMonkey, the Wisest, Funniest Pharmacist in the blogosphere.

I am not voting for Hillary in the primary which is being held in my state sometime in February. I haven't decided if it's Obama or Edwards who is getting my vote. I will have to make that decision a little closer to the primary.

However, in the general election, my vote goes to the Democratic candidate. That may end up being HRC.

I'm sorry, DM, but in 2009 it will be over my dead body that in the WH there will be another Republican. Although HRC ain't that far away from one.

At least if it's Hillary in the Oval Office, Bill will be back in the WH too, and it kinda makes me happy imagining all those Republican heads exploding. My fondness for Bill makes the idea of Hillary as Prez bearable.

Anonymous said...

I saw the report about Zetia and Vytorin on CNN and wondered why they did not give the DrugNazi any credit. All praise to the DrugNazi. You called it... you ROCK!

Anonymous said...

This Vytorin thing is a mess. Anyone interested in following the story might want to check out the article this page links to, which mentions that the FDA's pharmacology reviewer recommended against approval of Vytorin in the first place.

ThatDeborahGirl said...

This is an awesome post. You called it and you get should get a reward.

It's amazing what information can do. And if you saw the signs just by working in the field and reading a few things, you know good and well the company knew ages ago.

Kind of reminds me of the Pelican Brief though. You are a real life Darby Shaw without being chased by the FBI, CIA and unknown gangsters and without sexy Denzel to hug at the end. Still, Great Job.