Merck agrees to $58M settlement over Vioxx ad claims

[thecrow]

Source: AP

(snip)
Another provision of the settlement bars the company from "ghostwriting," a practice in which academic scientists were allegedly paid to take credit for positive research articles prepared by company-hired medical writers.

The civil settlement ends a joint three-year investigation by 29 states and the District of Columbia into Merck's advertising practices involving Vioxx, Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett said.



Vioxx was taken off the market in 2004 after research showed it doubled the risk of heart attacks and strokes. That triggered thousands of lawsuits against Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck. A pending $4.85 billion settlement would end the bulk of those personal injury suits.

Thanks to aggressive marketing through direct-to-consumer television ads begun in 1999, hundreds of thousands of consumers demanded Vioxx prescriptions before doctors had a chance to understand the side effects, Corbett said.

(snip)


Read more: http://money.excite.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt_top.jsp?news_id=ap-d90pjrno0&

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Oh, those innocent doctors were preyed on by the consumers.
Boy that wording bugs me. They were handing out Vioxx for menstrual cramps, for god's sake.

[Mojorabbit]

1. There is plenty of blame to go around

but my husband continually fights with his patients who want the pills they see advertised on tv. They think they will fix them right up. It frustrates the hell out of him. I can't believe this country lets the pharmaceutical companies advertise like this on television.

[kimmerspixelated]

2. I know! One thing that should be outlawed

are those incessant commercials proclaiming, "Ask your doctor!!" Just another form of brainwashing, definite mind-control!

[AdHocSolver]

3. Americans are the most gullible people living in a fantasy world.

Look at the disclaimers about bad side effects associated with taking these drugs. They either match the symptoms for which you are encouraged to take the drugs, or they are WORSE than the symptoms for which they are selling the drug.

One reason the companies use this advertising, even though on the surface, the drug sounds like something to avoid, is because the public is populated by a bunch of gullible morons.

If you get your information from a thirty second ad, and do no more research on the product, you are going to get screwed royally.

Americans have given up the use of their brains.