Following up on the United Health-sponsored Vytorin® study that suggested it would take treatment of over 1,250 patients, just to prevent one CV event with the drug, the "other shoe" has dropped. This will accelerate Vytorin's US swoon in Q2 2010. No doubt. Bloomberg Newswire has the story:
. . . .UnitedHealth, the biggest U.S. medical insurer by sales, will start charging patients $50 to $60 for a prescription of Vytorin and Zetia, up from the current co-payment of about $25 to $30, on July 1, said Tim Heady, head of UnitedHealth’s pharmaceutical solutions division.
The move is another blow for Vytorin and Zetia, which combines Vytorin and the generic drug simvastatin. Sales of Vytorin and Zetia have fallen by 14 percent worldwide to $4.3 billion in 2009 from $5 billion in 2007, when a study showed Zetia worked no better than simvastatin alone. UnitedHealth is increasing co-pays for Vytorin to encourage patients to switch to simvastatin, which has significantly gone down in price, Heady said. . . .
I suspect this development may have contributed to Merck's 3.6 percent dive, on double volume, on the NYSE this afternoon. Wow.
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