Healthy Skepticism Library item: 12618

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Hensley S.
Vytorin: Who Knew What When at Schering
The Wall Street Journal 2008 Jan 28
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/01/28/vytorin-who-knew-what-when-at-schering/?mod=yahoo_hs

Full text:

Schering-Plough has now added to its chronology of Vytorin events with a unusual roundup of when key executives at the company learned the results of the Enhance trial, which showed the combination pill wasn’t better than simvastatin alone as measured by ultrasound of neck arteries.

Congress is starting to ask questions stock sales by Schering-Plough execs and whether insiders profited from knowledge of the Enhance results before the public found out.

We’ve pored over a lot of SEC filings in our years, but this is the first time we can remember this kind of time-clockology. Even merger tick-tocks, which can make for interesting reading, don’t usually rope in as many characters as this brief passage from a filing by Schering-Plough on Friday.

Q: When was the Schering-Plough CEO informed of the top line results of ENHANCE?
A: Fred Hassan was informed on January 10, 2008 at 8:00 a.m by Tom Koestler, the head of Schering-Plough Research Institute.

Q: When were the Executive Vice Presidents informed about these top line results?
A: Certain other members of the company’s senior leadership team were informed of the top line results of ENHANCE as part of a pre-determined process.

Tom Koestler on January 7, 2008 at 2:00 p.m.
Tom Sabatino, EVP, on January 10, 2008 at 8:00 a.m.
Carrie Cox, EVP, on January 10, 2008 at 8:30 a.m.
Bob Bertolini, EVP, on January 10, 2008 at 9:00 a.m.