Larry Husten writes

Merck Uses Legal Threats To Stifle Negative Advice About Zetia And Vytorin In ItalyIn response to repeated legal threats, a public health doctor in Italy has withdrawn advice to curtail use of a controversial drug. The drug, ezetimibe, is a key ingredient in Zetia and Vytorin, which is manufactured by Merck . The cholesterol-lowering drug has been the subject of fierce controversy because it has never been shown to improve clinical outcomes. Despite the controversy, in 2013 the drugs had combined sales of more than $2.6 billion.MSD Italy, the Italian arm of the company, sent two “cease and desist” letters to Alberto Donzelli, who is “the head of education, appropriateness, and evidence based medicine at the public health authority of Milan (Milan Healthcare),” according to The  BMJ, which published a news report of the affair. The letter was also sent to Milan Healthcare’s director general and to Roberto Carlo Rossi, the president of the physicians’ regulatory organization in Milan.As reported in The BMJ, after the first letter Rossi replied that the medical commission had concluded “that there was no reason to object on ethical grounds to Donzelli’s behaviour. Donzelli also replied to each point raised in the letter. ‘I exercised my right to tell the general practitioners what emerged from our in-depth analyses of the published literature, on a peer to peer basis.’”In a second letter MSD I...
Source: PharmaGossip - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs