Pa. benefits fund sues over cholesterol pills
Pennsylvania Employees Benefit Trust Fund, which administers health-care benefits to state employees and retirees, is accusing Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. of misleading consumers about cholesterol pills Zetia and Vytorin. The suit, filed Friday in federal court in Philadelphia, seeks to recoup more than $9 million spent on the two drugs since October 2002 on the grounds that an older, less expensive medication, simvastatin, was just as effective.
Pennsylvania Employees Benefit Trust Fund, which administers health-care benefits to state employees and retirees, is accusing Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. of misleading consumers about cholesterol pills Zetia and Vytorin. The suit, filed Friday in federal court in Philadelphia, seeks to recoup more than $9 million spent on the two drugs since October 2002 on the grounds that an older, less expensive medication, simvastatin, was just as effective.
Merck, based in Whitehouse Station, N.J., has Philadelphia-area operations.