Merck & Co. is buying Schering-Plough Corp. for $41.1 billion in a deal that gives Merck key new businesses, access to a promising pipeline of new products and the chance to cut costs by $3.5 billion more per year, including eliminating about 16,000 jobs. ...more

March 10, 2009

Federal drug safety regulators said Thursday they are investigating whether the cholesterol-lowering drug Vytorin can increase patients' risk of developing cancer. ...more

August 22, 2008

The makers of popular cholesterol drugs Vytorin and Zetia - Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. - are being sued in states across the country over allegations that they misled consumers into thinking the drugs were more effective than generic ones. ...more

January 25, 2008

There have been times over the past five years when I have felt I've consumed more pills than Kurt Cobain by way of Keith Richards - and I haven't had even one halfway decent hallucination. ...more

January 17, 2008

A popular cholesterol-lowering drug failed to help slow the buildup of artery-clogging plaque in a long-awaited study, the companies that market the medication said Monday, raising questions about whether its use should be limited. ...more

January 15, 2008

Prescriptions for the cholesterol-lowering drugs Zetia and Vytorin are written for almost 800,000 Americans every week, at a cost this year of about $4 billion. Yet it still is not clear how well the drugs work. ...more

November 23, 2007