New data about the controversial cholesterol fighter Vytorin failed to quell concerns that the drug might not be as good as thought at keeping heart disease at bay, leading an expert panel to recommend on Sunday that patients stick with statins.

Full results of the study known as Enhance, released earlier on Sunday, mirrored results in January released by the drug's makers Merck & Co and Schering-Plough Corp

That sent shock waves among heart doctors, who had readily prescribed the drug because it does such a great job at lowering low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol doctors see as the chief villain in the war against heart disease.

The results do little to ease investor concerns about the profit potential for the drug that is critical to the future of both Schering-Plough and Merck. The two drugmakers have come under fire from the medical community and lawmakers for a long delay in releasing the results of the clinical trial.

The full study was published online in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at a meeting in Chicago of the American College of Cardiology in a panel debate.

Vytorin combines the statin Zocor, known generically as simvastatin, with another cholesterol medicine, Zetia or ezetimibe, and is marketed by a joint venture of Merck and Schering-Plough.

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