Merck Annual Report 2000

    Some 185 million Americans watch televised National Football League (NFL) games each weekend during the fall and winter. What better forum than the NFL for informing Americans about heart disease, the nation’s No.1 killer. There were almost 140,000 responses from fans who logged onto a Merck sponsored NFL Web site with disease information which allowed them to check their own potential risk for a heart attack.
    In addition to the disease education program, Merck also ran television commercials featuring Atlanta Falcons coach Dan Reeves, who since his heart bypass surgery in 1998, is now taking better care of himself with a healthy diet, exercise and Zocor every day. Twenty percent of the people taking Zocor for the first time say they were influenced by Reeves' espousal of the benefits of our medicine.
    Large-scale consumer initiatives like these have the potential to reach more people than ever before in the United States (where direct-to-consumer advertising is permitted) and help to get people more involved in their own health care. As a result, the statin market and Zocor are benefiting from this enhanced involvement. This year, the U.S. statin market grew 20 percent and revenues for Zocor rose 30 percent to $3.4 billion, despite the extremely competitive nature of the market. The global market rose 23 percent, with Zocor holding its position as a strong No.2 in an expanding field, thanks in no small part to great success in Japan. Zocor remains Merck's top-selling drug with worldwide sales of about $5.3 billion.
    Potential for even stronger global growth exists because so many people remain undiagnosed and untreated. Take the United States, the market where a higher percentage of people are diagnosed and treated. Only half of those Americans believed to be candidates are treated with any statin. Only 30 percent of people with diabetes, who are prone to heart attacks, receive treatment. To help improve the situation, Merck has begun working with major U.S. hospitals to encourage physicians to prescribe statins for patients who have just undergone heart surgery. The idea is to lower the chances of having another heart attack. Similar programs have been established in non-U.S. markets.
    Merck scientists continue the search for additional uses of Zocor. Clinical studies revealed, for example, that at starting doses Zocor has LDL (bad) cholesterol lowering that is not significantly different than its major competitor and is more effective at raising HDL (good) cholesterol at higher doses. Right now, more than 40,000 appropriate patients are either enrolled in or scheduled to participate in worldwide clinical trials designed to investigate potential new uses for Zocor.
    The major trials are:
    Heart Protection Study: Nearing completion in the United Kingdom, this study examines whether 20,000 high-risk patients, whose ranks include women, people with diabetes and the elderly, can improve their chances of avoiding heart attacks and stroke by taking a combination of Zocor 40mg and an antioxidant vitamin.
    SEARCH: This four-year study involving 12,000 people who have suffered heart attacks will attempt to show that additional cholesterol lowering leads to fewer coronary events.
    Zocor-ezetimibe: Merck has joined forces with Schering-Plough (maker of ezetimibe) to evaluate whether a combination of these two drugs will allow patients to lower their cholesterol levels more quickly and efficiently. Clinical trials are proceeding.
    Zocor is the best-selling of the five drugs we consider our key drivers for growth. And it is poised for continued strong growth.

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