Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Well, It's Not ALL Serious Science -- At AHA "Science Sessions"!


Do click to enlarge below. I am all for loading a little levity into a scientific presentation -- so, I reproduce select portions of Merck's DEFINE 2010 top-line results slide sets, below.

The point is starkly, and forcefully made (using Eva Mendes -- did her people clear the image?), both that the Pfizer molecule differs from Merck's -- and that it is not yet clear that the HDL molecule is biologically viable. Exactly:



More seriously, let's not get carried away here, as that last slide makes plain:

. . . .What is further required?

Proof of outcome benefit, in a large randomized trial. . . . [Reveal: 2015 or later.]

Getting to a statistically-significant number of major CV events, on 30,000 patients could take as long or longer as IMPROVE-IT (the Vytorin®/Zetia® outcomes study) -- covering 18,000 patients. If so, the REVEAL publication date is more like 2018 or 2019.

Trivia: here is the specific movie clip from which Merck's DEFINE study discussant cardiologist lifted the shot of Ms. Mendes, above -- a 2008 movie called "The Women":

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