S-P and Merck to develop Lipitor combination
pharmafile | March 29, 2007 | News story | Sales and Marketing |Â Â cvÂ
Schering-Plough and Merck have announced plans to develop a new 2-in-1 cholesterol pill that would include Lipitor, which belongs to their rivals Pfizer.
Lipitor (atorvastatin) is still under patent protection, but Schering-Plough and Merck are to prepare a pill combining it and Schering-Plough's ezetimibe (Ezetrol) for when Lipitor's patent expires in 2011.
Schering-Plough describes the development as merely "interesting", but the idea of two pharma companies using a third's patent-protected product to develop a new compound is highly unusual.
Lee Davies, global head of communications for Schering-Plough's cardiovascular products admitted: "I'm not sure I can think of a parallel situation. But we have studied ezetimibe with other compounds. We have frequently used it in clinical trials on top of existing cholestrol-lowering products."
Developing a compound using Lipitor is a big step, although Davies emphasised that no commercial agreement had been signed by the two companies. "It's a drug development contractural arrangement that doesn't cover commercialisation, sales and marketing at this stage," he told Pharmafocus. "They've agreed to co-develop the drug but there is no determination to market it commercially."
That would seem to be the logical end, however, since the cholesterol-management market was worth $32 billion in worldwide sales in 2006 and Schering-Plough and Merck have already collaborated to develop and commercialise Vytorin – known as Inegy in the UK – a combination of ezetimibe and simvastatin (Merck's Zocor). The companies claim the combination has greater efficacy than Lipitor, although they faced an uphill battle to persuade doctors to switch from the generic simvastatin to the branded combination pill.
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