According to a report published Monday in the Wall Street Journal, Merck was well aware of the problems with Vioxx. E-mails from the company show the company even developed a strategy for avoiding questions about the health risks posed by the money-making drug.
As the Journal points out, Merck pulled Vioxx from the market citing patient safety. But for years, the company appears to have acted in its own best interest without regard to the serious consequences some of the drug’s users faced.
The company sued critics who raised concerns about Vioxx and worked to systematically discredit researchers whose findings questioned the drug’s safety and efficacy.
Meanwhile, the Journal reports, citing internal company communications, Merck’s lead researcher e-mailed colleagues that “cardiovascular events are clearly there’ and called it a shame.'”
The shame comes from a drug company’s failure to act as a honest broker of health products and its desire to put profits ahead of patient welfare.
The company’s ethical lapse is made worse because the government watchdog, the Food and Drug Administration, charged with evaluating new drugs clearly failed.
The misdeeds by Merck have already spawned a flurry of legitimate lawsuits, which seek to hold the company accountable.
When the marketplace fails and the government fails, it falls to the courts to adjudicate. Without that avenue, the people potentially harmed by Vioxx would have no recourse.
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