THE VIOXX SCANDAL
Episode 203 | Historical Events
In this History episode we focus on the Vioxx scandal — how Merck's blockbuster painkiller reached 80 million patients worldwide while the company manipulated safety data showing a 400 percent increase in heart attack risk. The VIGOR trial showed the cardiovascular danger as early as December 1999. The drug wasn't withdrawn until September 2004. In between: five years of misleading clinical presentations, ghostwritten scientific articles published under researchers' names, and an FDA scientist whose internal warnings were suppressed by his superiors.
We examine…
The skinny
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