Vioxx Study Dismissed by U.S. Researchers as Marketing Ploy

A 1999 clinical study by Merck & Co. was meant to bolster a company marketing campaign and not intended to test side effects of the arthritis and chronic pain-killing drug Vioxx, as the company had claimed, researchers said.

 The study, dubbed Advantage, was a so-called “seeding project” meant to promote Vioxx prescriptions before the drug had received Food and Drug Administration approvals, according to the researchers’ findings printed in the medical journal, Annals of Internal Medicine.

The researchers based their findings on an evaluation of Merck documents acquired by attorneys who are suing Merck for Vioxx-related injuries to patients. They contend that companies like Merck carelessly put patients at risk by promoting products without scientific proof that they are safe.

The new report casts a suspicious shadow over Merck and its wonder drug Vioxx, which racked up annual sales of $2.5 billion before it was linked to an increase risk of heart attacks and strokes in long-term users. Vioxx was pulled from pharmacies in 2004.

Merck claimed that the 1999 study was aimed at determining whether Vioxx caused fewer stomach problems than naproxen, another similar drug. Company officials discounted the researchers’ findings about the study and said the findings were riddled with inaccuracies and based on an incomplete analysis of company documents.

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