NEW YORK — Drugmaker Merck drafted dozens of research studies for its best-selling pain drug Vioxx, then lined up prestigious doctors to put their names on the reports, according to a leading medical journal.
The article, based on documents unearthed in Vioxx lawsuits, cited one draft of a study that was still in want of a big-name researcher, identifying the lead writer only as “External author?”
Vioxx was pulled from the market in 2004 over evidence linking it to heart attacks. Last fall, Merck agreed to a $4.85 billion settlement to resolve tens of thousands of lawsuits.
“It almost calls into question all legitimate research that’s been conducted by the pharmaceutical industry with the academic physician,” said lead author Dr. Joseph Ross of New York’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The article is in today’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Merck said it sometimes hires outside medical writers to draft reports, but it disputed the notion that the authors do little actual research or analysis. The New York Times
