Senate Finance Committee Investigates Medical Societies’ Financial Ties to Pharma

When Merck and Schering-Plough released data from a clinical trial of cholesterol medication Vytorin showing that it worked no better than a much cheaper generic, the companies were widely accused in the media of deliberately delaying the release of the findings for 20 months in order to boost profits — prompting the U.S. Senate Finance Committee to investigate. The result: the SFC has widened its inquiry into pharmaceutical industry funding, including CME grants, to see if these monies are