Merck Sharp and Dohme’s Vytorin shows heart health benefits

Merck Sharp and Dohme has announced positive data from Improve-IT, a new study of its cholesterol-lowering medicine Vytorin.

Patients treated with the therapy – which combines simvastatin with the non-statin Zetia – were shown to have experienced significantly fewer major cardiovascular events than patients treated with simvastatin alone.

The results from the 18,144-patient study of high-risk patients presenting with acute coronary syndromes therefore met all of its primary and secondary composite efficacy endpoints.

Based on these findings, the company plans to file for US approval of a new indication for Vytorin next year, allowing it to be used as a means of reducing the chances of major cardiovascular events.

Dr Roger Perlmutter, president of Merck Research Laboratories, said: "We are grateful to our collaborators at Harvard and Duke who led the study, their fellow investigators, and to the thousands of patients around the world who participated in this study for their efforts."

Next month, the company will attend the American Society of Hematology annual meeting and the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, where it will share the newest findings on its oncology therapy Keytruda.