/sci/ - Science & Math

>>14549857
>The fraud has included Merck’s withholding of cases of myocardial infarction in trials of rofecoxib. Merck’s manipulations were so extensive that an independent meta‑analysis of rofecoxib studies found that those with an external endpoint committee reported four times more heart attacks with rofecoxib
than with the comparator, whereas trials without an external endpoint committee reported fewer heart attacks with rofecoxib (1).1

>Merck spokespeople lied to the FDA and the United States Congress about what and when the company knew that rofecoxib was deadly, but the worst lies were
seen in Merck’s marketing. In February 2001, the FDA asked Merck to make the doctors aware of the results in the large VIGOR study published in the New England Journal of Medicine where rofecoxib had caused a 5‑fold increase in the incidence of myocardial infarction in comparison with naproxen.1 However, the next day, Merck instructed its sales force of more than 3000 people NOT to discuss the results of the VIGOR study. Merck also produced a pamphlet to its sales force indicating that rofecoxib was associated with one‑eighth the mortality from cardiovascular causes of that found with other NSAIDs (1).

>Pfizer also published a prestigious but fraudulent trial, this time in JAMA, and this company also lied about its trials. For example, Pfizer denied in documents prepared for a 2005 FDA hearing that celecoxib causes heart attacks.

(1) http://pamw.pl/en/node/2503/pdf
(2) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1117251/