Cholesterol Drug Bombs - New York Times

Cholesterol Drug Bombs - New York Times: In an editorial, The New York Times calls for pharmaceutical companies to promptly release data from studies of their drugs, responding to the news this week that the popular cholesterol drug Vytorin may not work to protect arteries and may in fact worsen clogging. The Times says that Merck and Schering-Plough conducted a European trial of Vytorin as compared to an older drug, Zocor, and waited to release the results for more than a year. A House committee will explore whether they withheld the results lest they interfere with sales and only released them under pressure from Congress and news media reports. The Times writes that whatever the committee discovers, scientists must insist on the right to review and release data, and perhaps legislation is in order that penalizes companies for not releasing data promptly.