Did Merck and Schering-Plough bribe American Heart Association to support Vytorin in crisis?

Well, that's one way to look at it, but all parties deny those charges.

So you be the judge.

Here's the deal: After last week’s release of the disastrous Vytorin study, the American Heart Association immediately released a statement warning against stopping Vytorin treatment, despite a complete lack of evidence that the drug has any clinical efficacy as opposed to simply lowering lipids.

What they didn't say was that AHA received nearly $2 million per year from Merck and Schering-Plough. Health Care Renewal pointed out this little fact last week and New York Times today nailed down the number. New York Times sure is starting to run behind the web-based bloggers . . . maybe they should hire a few of them?

But BrandweekNRX was first, using our regular, cynical, outlook to write, "True to the high expectations one should have of Hassan in this situation, he let the media stew for a day and then the counter offensive was launched with Wall Street analysts, media pundits and credible scientific organizations telling the world the "study didn't matter."

If you are cynical in these matters, you're rarely wrong.

All parties claim all that money changing hand played no role in the statement by AHA.

That's like claiming when a mother defends her son, that the fact he didn't ask her to do so means she didn't do it because she is his mother. Not to be cynical.

It also turns out that AHA president Dan Jones has been a Merck consultant (see this article), thank you Pharmalot for pointing this out to us. He told the New York Times, when questioned about the fact that AHAs cholesterol web page links to Vytorin . . . “We certainly don’t want to ever give the impression that any content that’s put in any place by a pharmaceutical company is delivered or endorsed by the AHA. If there is a lack of clarity on that, I will work with our team to make it clear.”

Jones, he's a funny guy, isn't he?

So what about American College of Cardiology, which also issued a statement supporting Vytorin? You don't have to guess--they also have their hands in Merck's and Schering's pockets, and this had no influence on them, according to ACC.

The ACC statement was issued in response to numerous queries from docs, nurses and the media, according to an ACC spokeswoman. It was drafted by an unnamed group of ACC leaders, according to Pharmalot, and approved by the ACC president. Among those involved was Roger Blumenthal, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, who chairs the ACC’s committee on prevention of cardiovascular disease. However, Blumenthal is also on the speaker’s bureau for Merck and Schering-Plough, and has received unspecified research grants from Merck.

How many of the others at AHA and ACC were also corrupted by money from Schering and Merck we don't know yet, perhaps the Congressional investigation will get to the bottom of that. Congress is expected to widen its Vytorin probe to include the AHA and the American College of Cardiology.

Congress shining som light on these entangled relationships will act as a badly needed disinfectant in the putrid corridors over at AHA and ACC, infected with Big Pharma money.

The American People deserves to know the truth. Please give it to us!

Comments

[Insider]

AHA - packed full of the best cardiologists that money can buy!

[John Mack]

Excellent stuff, Peter! A great example of your style and research with none of the fluff.

--JOhn