Ethics Newsline®

BOSTON
The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) last week claimed newly uncovered evidence shows that someone involved with a pivotal Canadian research study of the drug Vioxx withheld evidence of the painkiller’s danger.

The Globe & Mail reported that the 2000 study, conducted by a researcher from the University of Toronto and funded by Merck, the manufacturer of Vioxx, played down the cardiovascular risks, and that a recent re-examination of the data shows that evidence of three heart attacks was deleted.

Vioxx was pulled from the market in October 2004 after it was discovered that the drug significantly increased the risk of heart attack and stroke.

As this issue of Newsline went to press, the Toronto Star was reporting that the New England Journal of Medicine editor was speculating that a Merck editor deleted references to the drug’s danger. Neither Merck nor the researchers involved in the study immediately commented on the latest allegations.

Allegations that the drug company altered the data sent shockwaves throughout the medical community, according to Forbes. “This is one horrible debacle in American medicine history,” said Dr. Eric Topol, chair of the cardiovascular medicine department at Cleveland Clinic and author of several articles on Vioxx. “I’ve never seen the likes of this.”

Merck has faced several inquiries and court cases, including one suit currently under way in Houston, where jurors remained deadlocked over the weekend as to whether the drug had contributed to a man’s death, the Associated Press reported.