Merck and Vioxx

Looks like Merck might have known about the cardiovascular risks of Vioxx well before recent events:

Merck's first worry, in the mid-to-late 1990s, was that its drug would show greater heart risk than cheaper painkillers that were harsh on the stomach but were believed to reduce the risk of heart attacks. Several company officials discussed in e-mails how to design a study that would minimize the unflattering comparison, even while admitting to themselves that it would be difficult to conceal.

By 2000, one e-mail suggests Merck recognized that Vioxx didn't merely lack the protective features of old painkillers but that something about the drug itself was linked to an increased heart risk. On March 9, 2000, the company's powerful research chief, Edward Scolnick, e-mailed colleagues that the cardiovascular events "are clearly there" and called it a "shame." He compared Vioxx to other drugs with known side effects and wrote, "there is always a hazard." But the company's public statements after Dr. Scolnick's e-mail continued to reject the link between Vioxx and increased
intrinsic risk.

As academic researchers increasingly raised questions about Vioxx's heart safety, the company struck back hard. It even sued one Spanish pharmacologist, trying unsuccessfully to force a correction of an article he wrote. In another case, it warned that a Stanford University researcher would "flame out" unless he stopped giving "anti-Merck" lectures, according to a letter of complaint written to Merck by a Stanford professor. A company training document listed potential tough questions about Vioxx and said in capital letters, "DODGE!"

Ugh. Remember, the Bush administration has long featured the protection of drug companies from lawsuits as a part of their "tort-reform" plank since they argue that the FDA let the drug through in the first place. Stupidity of that argument aside, the FDA hasn't been doing their job over the past few years (witness the entirely political decision to keep RU-386 from being an over-the-counter medication).

And Dubya is all worried about the safety of drug re-importation from Canada...