EXCERPT FROM USA TODAY

By Steve Sternberg, USA TODAY
Corporate and government documents from Vioxx lawsuits indicate that the drug's maker, Merck & Co., apparently downplayed evidence showing the painkiller tripled the risk of death in Alzheimer's-prone patients, researchers report today.
A separate analysis of court documents revealed that many Vioxx studies were prepared or written by Merck employees or paid consultants, not the doctors named as the studies' lead authors, researchers say.
Doctors involved in the analyses, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, some of whom served as plaintiffs' witnesses, say the trove of information that Merck was compelled to produce offers a rare window into the world of billion-dollar drugs and the lengths to which a company will go to advance and protect its interests.
"The drug industry appears to treat scientific data as if they were a marketing tool," says the University of Washington's Bruce Psaty, a co-author of one of the JAMA articles. "That's not appropriate."
The Vioxx disclosures are "just the tip of the iceberg," JAMA editor Catherine DeAngelis says. "I've been sitting in this office for eight years, watching physicians and clinical researchers be used by pharmaceutical companies in ways that can end up with patients being hurt. Physicians have allowed it to happen, and it's time to stop."

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https://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-04-15-vioxx-drug-conflicts_N.htm

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