Vytorin

Merck will soon launch a new cholesterol combo that melds its Zetia drug with generic Lipitor. The Zetia-plus-statin approach isn't new, of course; Merck already sells Vytorin , a combination of Zetia and its own off-patent statin Zocor, known generically as Simvastatin.

The huge late-stage study that is seeking to determine once and for all if Merck's combo cholesterol drug Vytorin actually works and is safe will run its full course now that an independent safety board has signed off following a review of the data.

The Vytorin outcomes trial will go on. That's all the information we're getting out of the enormous Improve-It study for now. An independent data monitoring board looked at the trial's results so far and recommended that it continue.

Merck agreed to pay $688 million to resolve two securities-fraud lawsuits filed by irate shareholders. Pension funds and other institutional investors alleged that Merck--and Schering-Plough, which Merck bought in 2009--held back key information about the Enhance trial, which tested the combination drug Vytorin against one of its constituent parts, the statin drug Zocor.