Question-and-Answer Session
Thank you ma'am. [Operator Instructions]. Your first question comes from the line of Chris Schott with J.P. Morgan.
Chris Schott - J.P. Morgan
Great. Thank you. Just a couple of questions on ZETIA-VYTORIN franchise, can you talk a little bit more on your outlook for the formulary status in the U.S., I guess, specifically as it relates to Medicare part D looking out to 2009? And I guess just what percent accounts you are targeting to get to tier II with this franchise looking out to next year? And along the same lines, talk about the investment associated with cholesterol JV right now, are you rescaling any of your investment level on this business given what appears to be lower sales base on the U.S. side? Thanks.
Robert J. Bertolini - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Very good questions Chris. Carrie?
Carrie S. Cox - Executive Vice President and President, Global Pharmaceuticals
In general if you look at the availability of the products going forward currently and as we anticipate it could be for 2009, we feel very comfortable that there is good access. As I mentioned, we believe we have very competitive second tier access for our products, and we are quite comfortable with that. We also are continuing to have a market leading share with [ph] the sales force promotion with these products and again we're comfortable with the promotional levels we have; we reassess them continually, but we think we are in a good position now.
It's clear there's continuing generic pressure across the entire market; we see this to be similar to other large categories in the U.S. but there continues to be a strong role for the high performance products with significant impact on LDL like VYTORIN and ZETIA.
Fred Hassan - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
So, I think Chris what really is needed is more work on LDL and I think when it comes to be stronger product, the more effective products, they have a very important role to play. And we do not see any big new products following the category of product that are on the market at this time. So our goal really is to expand the population that gets to their LDL goal. And next question please.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Roopesh Patel with UBS.
Roopesh Patel - UBS
Thanks for taking my questions. I just have a couple of questions, the first one for Fred. If we do experience a global economic slowdown, I was wondering if you could give us your perspective on how deeply that might impact the industry and the company at this time around relative to what we've seen in the past? And then my second question is for Bob. On a year-to-date basis, I see... by my calculations the FX benefit to net income is somewhere in the $0.17 to $0.18 range, that's about 12% to 13% of net income reported so far. I was wondering if you could discuss how the company plans to manage net income exposure to FX headwinds potentially as we look forward to 2009? Thanks.
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