A Vioxx trial in Australia has shed new light on the questionable tactics Merck & Co. used to market the dangerous painkiller. The strategies, detailed in an article published by The New York Times, will not surprise anyone who has followed this blog’s Vioxx coverage.
Vioxx was approved for use in the U.S. in 1999, and quickly became a blockbuster for Merck, with annual sales of $2.5 billion. The painkiller was pulled off the market in 2004 after an analysis of patients using Vioxx linked the defective drug to more than 27,000 heart attacks or sudden cardiac deaths in the U.S. from 1999 through 2003. Vioxx was also recalled in more than 80 countries that year.
The Vioxx recall spawned thousands of product liability lawsuits. In 2007, Merck agreed to settle most U.S. Vioxx claims for $4.85 billion. But the company is still defending lawsuits in other countries, including Australia.
We’ve already reported on one of the most shocking tactics used by Merck to push Vioxx in Australia – the use of a fake medical journal. The journal, published by Elsevier, looked like other peer-reviewed medical journals, but contained only reprinted or summarized articles – all of which presented Merck products, including Vioxx, in a favorable light.
According to the New York Times, Merck published several issues of the “journal”, entitled Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine, between 2002 and 2005. It was presented to doctors as a real medical journal.
The New York Time is also reporting that the Australian trial has revealed that Vioxx sales reps in that country were given a training manual called the “Vioxx Objection Handling Module.” This manual schooled reps in methods of deflecting doctors’ questions about the drug’s side effects, and easing their concerns. According to The New York Times, Merck began distributing the manual in 2001 as studies began to emerge that pointed to the drug’s heart and stroke risks.
The Australian trial has also demonstrated how disillusioned doctors felt when they learned Merck had tried to obscure Vioxx’s safety issues. For example, in an e-mail message dated Oct. 2, 2004, Dr. James V. Bertouch, an Australian physician who had been a member of Merck’s arthritis advisory board, told fellow board member that he felt “like the proverbial mushroom” and asked colleagues how they felt being kept in the dark about Vioxx.
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June 6th, 2009 at 8:22 am
currently nearing its end, is one of this country’s truly David and Goliath struggles…Slater and Gordon v Merck. One of the worlds biggest drug company’s..vioxx the drug in question has killed god knows how many Australians and destroyed countless lives due to heart attack and strokes, our own FDA and Doctors let this happen in the pursuit of greed .The transcripts of this court case are truly bizarre..Merck have sent there people over from the states and have treated our journalist with contempt and harassed them on every little aspect of what might be written about them in a negative light , they have even engaged the service’s of Australian solicitors to send emails and please explains to the journos, they have even followed them to see what they are saying to other journos. Just to say , Google, Vioxx news and you will see the carrying on’s by this monster of a Company..I truly cant believe the arrogance of US based company ..They are saying there is no science to back up the litigation.. this an outright lie , they knew the cardiology effects three years before they withdrew it from market and tried to cover it up..My story is one of tragedy and hope..the tragedy is that my wife and i have lost 3 children to a rare genetic disorder and our only son had to watch his father have a heart attack and nearly die in front of him , and an over run hospital not diagnose the heart attack and say that i was suffering from a upper gastric problem and were going to send me home..a dead man is writing this really , at my insistence and without any pain relief i was admitted..with all there gizmos , i was finally diagnosed with having a heart attack some 11 hrs after being at my doctors with the attack .oK..i was 38 years old when i had the attack and was fit and an ex professional athlete , i was taking vioxx for a broken back that i sustained in an hit and run accident. Look , i am just a council dunny cleaner fighting a Multinational company that which was supposed to be help me led a better life with a safe and tested drug..now my life filled with doubt , and some hope that i will live to see my son have a family and a good life…cheers