Merck & Co., Schering-Plough Accused of Fraud | DC Metro Area Medical Malpractice Law Blog

Posted by: Salvatore J. Zambri, Esquire

Bloomberg News reports that “Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. were sued by a Pennsylvania fund for active and retired state employees over claims they misled consumers into paying too much for prescriptions of Zetia [ezetimibe] and Vytorin cholesterol pills.”  The Pennsylvania Employees Benefit Trust Fund alleges in a complaint that “the companies have known for years — and failed to make public — that Zetia doesn’t reduce fatty arterial plaques that can cause heart attacks and strokes.”  The reports comments that two studies last year showed that “the pills may work no better at unclogging arteries than does an older, cheaper medicine called simvastatin.” Nevertheless, the companies allegedly withheld the the finding and “used false and deceptive marketing techniques claiming Vytorin was more efficacious than and just as safe as the much cheaper generic,” according to the report.

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