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Vagelos operates on the theory that one should succeed in business without really lying. In a field where inflated claims by sales representatives are notorious, he bars his 5,000 "detail men," as drug-industry salespeople are known, from making claims they cannot substantiate with scientific data. He also does not allow them to bad-mouth other companies' cheaper generic drugs.
Merck's drugs speak for themselves. An astounding 13 each rang up more than $100 million in 1987 sales, well ahead of Britain's Glaxo Holdings, which has five products in that rarefied range. Among Merck's best sellers are Vasotec, a blood pressure-lowering drug; the antibiotics Primaxin and Noroxin; Pepcid, used to treat peptic ulcers; the anti-inflammatories Clinoril and Indocin; an antiglaucoma agent named Timoptic; and the hepatitis fighter Recombivax HB, the first genetically engineered vaccine licensed for human use.
Perhaps the most wondrous of Merck's wonder drugs is its newest, a substance called lovastatin that lowers cholesterol levels in the body by up to 40% and is marketed under the brand name Mevacor. Its development illustrates how Merck achieves breakthroughs via a combination of dogged lab work, close cooperation with FDA officials and a painstaking preoccupation with the safety of potential patients.
Mevacor was no overnight phenomenon. In 1956 a team of Merck scientists discovered melavonic acid, a crucial chemical in the series of reactions that produce cholesterol. It was not until 1979, four years after Vagelos left his teaching post at Washington University in St. Louis to join Merck Labs as a high-ranking executive, that the company used new lab techniques he had suggested to build on that 23-year-old discovery and isolate lovastatin, which could inhibit the production of melavonic acid and block the buildup of cholesterol. Merck spent eight years assessing lovastatin's safety. By November 1986, when Merck sought FDA approval for what was then known as MK- 803, agency officials were already familiar with the details, because the company had kept them informed of the drug's progress every step of the way. FDA approval last August came after just nine months of review, instead of the usual 30 months.
For all its potential, Mevacor faces stiff competition. Lopid, a similar drug introduced in 1982 by Parke-Davis, had about 40% of the $190 million anticholesterol business when Mevacor appeared on druggists' shelves in September. Mevacor quickly grabbed a 33% share, trimming Lopid's to 20%. Then, in November, Parke-Davis came out with a study quantifying how Lopid dramatically cuts the risk of coronary heart disease. Lacking his own data, Vagelos refused to make similar assertions. By January the two drugs were running about even in sales. Analysts suggest, however, that once Merck has its own study in hand, the company's reputation could push Mevacor back in front, generating more than $1 billion in annual sales by 1992.