Vytorin study to continue after review; Merck shares jump

This article is bunk. I was doing fine with Lipitor until an unscrupulous cardiologist insisted that I use Vytorin. This was following a successful open heart surgery. A few weeks following the initial ingestion of the Vytorin, I was realizing all sorts of major muscular pain all over my body. I immediately went to my primary care physician who proceeded with several tests as no one at that time knew of the bad side effects of Vytorin and I was taking a slew of prescriptions to help bring me out of the heart attack problem. This apparently threw all of the physicians a curve ball as none of them were able to diagnose the Vytorin as the culprit. Not until January of 2008 was the cause of my excruciating muscular pain defined and it was by my pharmacist who explained that the manufacturer of Vytorin had just released a study that was completed back in April 2006. I immediately quit taking Vytorin and my upper body began to resolve. However, no matter how long I waited, and no matter what I did to mitigate the problem, my lower body never followed and to this day the Vytorin induced muscular pain remains in my entire lower body. In addition to this, a condition called Rhabdomyolysis has taken effect and is a condition directly linked to the Vytorin.
I’ve met all sorts of people who have experienced the same thing, but the Big Pharma companies don’t want to admit to their failure. Those that were on Vytorin only a short period, perhaps up to 12 weeks may have had their bodies resolve, but those who were on the drug longer, perhaps a half a year or longer still have residual effects, and yes, even death which occurred to a friend who had been on the drug since its release in 2004. A release which should not have happened as the drug had not been tested. The study that did occur, called ENHANCE, was a short term study of only 12 weeks and involved about 3400 persons. Those persons who showed negative side effects during the study were dropped so that they were not included in the final results. Since that time, to the best of anyone’s knowledge that I have discussed this case with, there has been no long term study except informally by those of us who continue to suffer from the Vytorin induced side effects. This IMPROVE-IT study supposedly started in 2005 before their ENHANCE study was even completed is a crock. Don’t ever agree to take Vytorin as you will be just rolling the dice with your life. See other studies on-line studied and published concerning the problems with this drug.