Merck and Schering-Plough will pay $41.5 million settling class-action suits of 140 consumers and insurers who bought, used or paid money toward the purchase of Vytorin [ezetimibe and simvastatin] and Zetia [ezetimibe]. The companies released unfavorable results of a clinical trial in January 2008, completed 2 years earlier, that showed the drugs were not any more effective at unclogging arteries than other treatments. The companies will also pay $5.4 million and comply with rules that settles a probe by 35 US states and the District of Columbia into whether consumer-protection laws were violated. According to Bruce N. Kuhlik, executive vice president and general counsel at Merck, the agreements will avoid continuing court costs and allow the companies to focus on their future business. Merck is hoping to close the $41.1 billion Schering buyout in the fourth quarter.
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