The cholesterol reducing drug known as Zocor is still getting lawsuits from many patients that were prescribed the statin medication.

Statins have been linked to cases of muscle injury, but it has been found that using Zocor creates a greater risk and something referred to as Zocor rhabdomyolysis. In its chronic form, rhabdomyolysis can break down the muscle fibre in kidneys, causing severe damage, failure and possibly be fatal. Diabetes was also detected in new research when high doses of statins such as Zocor or Lipitor were administered. 

It was also discovered that on a good note, a large dose of Lipitor was superior to the same dose of Zocor, a generic medication also named simvastatin. In the treatment to prevent strokes and heart attacks.

Doctors and the media have been aware of the medical repercussions from the use of Zocor for a considerable time. Yet in June 2011 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), instructed that new warnings must be included drug information, to do with 80mg doses increasing the possibility of damage.

Further studies covered the French Pharmacovigilance System Database, where there were findings of erectile dysfunction occurring in male patients taking statins. It was reported that those taking statins were 10 times more likely to suffer from an immediate form of ED, than those using a different drug regime. When the statins were removed from their treatment, only 50% regained a normal sexual health six months after. Erectile Dysfunction can be helped by Viagra and it has been used for more than a decade as a successful treatment for this condition. Other medications used to treat impotence include cialis (tadalafil)

Dr Kash Rizvi working in the UK found in a study back in 2002, that there is a distinct link with impotence and taking statins. The most cases of ED occurred with users of simvastatin, but this was probably because Zocor held the largest distribution shares, at the time the investigation was carried out. All brands of statin drugs that were on the market at that time were viewed, with the same outcome - that they caused ED.

Zocor is known by several names, Vytorin and Zetia being the ones named in the lawsuit against the makers Merck. They agreed to pay $41.5 million, after it was discovered that they had withheld parts of research, indicating that the medication did not perform as well as they claimed as an artery unblocker.

The two companies involved; Merck and Scherling-Plough did not admit liability and continue to defend the medication, its uses and effectiveness in treating ailments.

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