DENVER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In a new investigational study of VYTORIN® (ezetimibe/simvastatin), the cholesterol-lowering medicine from Merck (known as MSD outside the US and Canada), VYTORIN 10/20 mg reduced the incidence of first major vascular events -- defined as non-fatal heart attacks or cardiac death, stroke or any revascularization procedure -- by a highly statistically significant 16.1 percent compared to placebo (p=0.0010). This was the pre-specified primary endpoint of the study. The SHARP (Study of Heart and Renal Protection) study involved more than 9,000 patients who, on average, had advanced or end-stage chronic kidney disease (CKD), and is the first prospective clinical study in patients with CKD to demonstrate the benefit of lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol on major vascular events. The results were presented today during Renal Week, the American Society of Nephrology’s annual meeting, by Professor Colin Baigent, F.F.P.H., F.R.C.P., and Dr. Martin Landray, Ph.D., F.R.C.P., the principal investigators of SHARP, from the Oxford University Clinical Trial Service Unit (CTSU), Oxford, England.
