Another one bites the dust

Mar/31/2008 05:25 Filed in: Pharma Business
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Leading doctors urged a return to older, tried-and-true treatments for high cholesterol after hearing full results of a failed trial of Vytorin. “The strongest recommendation we can make on this panel is to go back to statins,” said Dr. Harlan M. Krumholz, a cardiologist at Yale. “They work.” Well if the current pharma holds true the next step if for SP to start laying off sales people and for sales to continue to sink like a stone in water.


Merck and Schering-Plough, the companies that make Vytorin and Zetia, said on Sunday that they disagreed with the recommendations. Vytorin and Zetia have been proved to lower cholesterol and are valuable treatments for patients, said Dr. Rick Veltri, vice president of the Schering-Plough research institute. “We feel that nothing’s changed,” Dr. Veltri said. Nothing has changed except that your product is now naked in front of a world-wide audience and perception is the new reality. To continue to try and change the perception that Vytorin is effective is like trying to get water to flow uphill (i.e. It ain't gonna happen).


Since these drugs produce about 70 percent of Schering-Plough’s profit, according to analysts, one would expect them to do anything they can to hold onto the ship as it slips below the water but the reality of this will gradually sink in and the response will be one that improves the balance sheet for shareholders. Since instant gratification takes too long on the Street traders will be dumping SP stock left and right today. The eventual reality of what happened will sink in and then we'll start to hear about impending sales force realignments and reductions.


How bad is it for SP? Well maybe this will give you a clue...“We’ve got a drug that has no clinical outcome trials,” Dr. Nissen said. “I advise my colleagues essentially to use this drug only as a last resort.” Well that's what you get when you sit on data and don't believe in transparency. So the Queen song goes..."Another one bites the dust"....
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