December 2008 Vytorin/Zetia Market Share Slides to 10.13 Percent -- IMS

While the overall US market for cholesterol management drugs expanded in December (according to IMS), the share of that market held by the Schering-Merck Joint Venture declined to 10.127 percent, compared to 10.27 percent in November 2008.

Schering also said that it would no longer provide monthly IMS data on the two drugs -- claiming that the erosion has "stabilized". I'll have more about that goofy Schering proclamation when I'm back from DC, on Thursday.

LATER -- personally, I'd be ashamed to sign my name to a statement that called this IMS data "stabilizing": a pair of drugs, but essentially one brand -- whose US market-share has fallen from the low-20s percent range over a year ago, to 17, then to 15, then to 12, then to 11, and now to essentially a dead-flat-10 percent by December 2008.

But I am not Fred Hassan -- and thankfully, I am not his lawyer.

Where is the full-measure of truth in Schering's FAQs? I don't see it. Telling Wall Street rose-colored half-truths, all while requiring that the analysts "do the math" -- to learn the far-less sanguine full-truth -- is a "sharp practice". Puts me in mind of an old bon mot:

"Verily, the sharp employ the sharp -- a man may be by his lawyer, known."

-- Voltaire

From DC, on Tuesday, then (as ever, click it to enlarge):