Vytorin Fraud Plot Thickens

Merck and Schering-Plough find themselves on a hot seat, likely to be held accountable for 10 billion dollars worth of fraud due to false marketing of their cholesterol-lowering drug Vytorin. Their only defense is that they really didn’t know they committed fraud – a flimsy excuse that is becoming ever more unbelievable as it is now discovered that they created faulty minutes for an important independent advisory panel meeting discussing the questionable study results and what to do about them - only after Congress began to investigate the matter. Congress is now holding their feet on the flames.

Not only do the minutes of the meeting contain numerous inaccuracies, one of the five scientists at the meeting recalls being told there would be no minutes or transcripts of the meeting so that participants could speak freely. Click here to the view the “after the fact” written minutes of the Schering-Plough advisory panel meeting as well as the annotated inaccuracies of the minutes by one of the attending scientists.

Once the dust settles on the immediate financial fraud of Vytorin, then the underlying and more encompassing fraud of drastically lowering cholesterol through the use of drugs will come front and center. Sooner or later everyone will catch on that there is a dramatic difference between a good cholesterol level because you are healthy, and the blatant deterioration of health over time by lowering cholesterol with statin drugs – especially when levels are lowered to abnormal physiologic levels under the false pretense of health benefit.