Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Merck: Did it Hide Vioxx Data?

A recent study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine has revealed that information about heart risks from pharmaceutical giant Merck's Vioxx drug was available in 2000, four years before the Merck pulled the drug from the market. Because the information was not published and made public, Merck may have sat on it until a later clinical trial openly revealed that the drug was causing strokes and heart attacks.

A Merck spokesman, denied the claims that any link could be observed and complained about the methods used by researchers to come to this conclusion, despite acceptance of the findings following a rigorous peer review process.

Find the abstract here.