European watchdog starts safety review of Merck cholesterol drug

LONDON Dec 21 (Reuters) - The European Medicines Agency said it has launched a review of Merck & Co Inc's cholesterol drug Tredaptive after the medicine failed in a large-scale study.

The drug, already approved for use in Europe but not in the United States, is designed to raise "good" HDL cholesterol but the 25,000 patient study found it didn't do better at preventing heart attacks, deaths or strokes than traditional statin drugs that lower "bad" LDL cholesterol.