Vioxx

[Killed up to 140,000 people after being ‘proved safe’ in animals, including monkeys.]

  "Mainstream media has sold out.  It sold out. ...I sat once with Sharyl Attkisson, one of this country's greatest journalists, working for CBS.  And she said to me, 'Andy, when we finish this interview, . . . I will get a call from the top floor, from the money men, and they will say, that interview does not go out, because I've had a call from our pharmaceutical industry sponsors, and if it goes out, then they are going to pull their sponsorship.' And that is why she left [CBS]." ......"I was sitting with [NBC Today Show's] Matt Lauer in an interview and he said, 'Dr. Wakefield, isn't this just conspiracy theory?'  The press loves that!  They love that, don't they?  Conspiracy theory. Like that's it.  A panacea for your madness.  Conspiracy theory. I said, 'Well Matt,' because we were on really good term at that stage, I said, 'Matt, it's really interesting that you should say that because in the courts, in Australia, just this week, in the Vioxx trials against Merck, where they killed thousands of patients with Vioxx, knowingly.  There were a series of disclosures about internal emails at Merck about how they would deal with doctors who dissented from the safety of Vioxx.  And they said, we'll isolate them and we'll discredit them, and the final one, in court, said, 'We may have to seek them out and destroy them where they live.'   So I said, 'Matt, you know it's less a question of conspiracy theory and more a question of corporate policy, don't you think?'  And that did not make it off the cutting room floor, as you can imagine." [2015 May] Moms In Charge Presents Dr. Andrew Wakefield on CDC Whistleblower

[2012 April] Merck ordered to pay $321 mln in criminal Vioxx probe

[2011 May] Adverse reactions lead US patients to ask 'just how safe are antibiotics?'   he was prescribed a toxic combination of drugs to treat lingering symptoms of what his doctor thought was prostatitis. Ten years later, he suffers from permanent brain damage, is on disability and has lost more than $3 million in medical costs and income.  Grozier was prescribed a combination of ciprofloxacin and vioxx, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug.

Vioxx/David Graham  he identified the FDA’s handling of Vioxx as the worst public health disaster in its history, resulting in a probable 30,000-55,000 deaths of Americans alone.

[2009 June] Publisher consulted drug firm on journal content  THE world's largest medical publisher (Elsevier, which produces The Lancet) asked the manufacturers of anti-inflammatory drug Vioxx which articles they wanted to include in a so-called medical journal on bone health.....The plaintiff in the class action has alleged the journal was fake and it was simply a marketing exercise designed to promote Vioxx. The court has also heard Merck put the names of high-profile arthritis experts on the editorial board of the phoney journal without telling them they had done so.

[2009 April] Vioxx maker Merck and Co drew up doctor hit list "We may need to seek them out and destroy them where they live," a Merck employee wrote, according to an email excerpt read to the court by Julian Burnside QC, acting for the plaintiff.

[2009 March] Top Pain Scientist Fabricated Data in Studies A prominent Massachusetts anesthesiologist allegedly fabricated 21 medical studies that claimed to show benefits from painkillers like Vioxx and Celebrex, according to the hospital where he worked.

[2005] The FDA Exposed: An Interview With Dr. David Graham, the Vioxx Whistleblower

[Media Nov 2004] Safety of Entire Family of Painkillers Questioned

[Media AP] U.S. Officials Knew of AIDS Drug Risks
[Media December 16, 2004] Many FDA Scientists Had Drug Concerns, 2002 Survey Shows

[Media November 3, 2004] FDA report links Vioxx to 27,785 heart attacks, deaths Agency releases study, had been warned of risk before

[Media March 24, 2002] Report Links Vioxx to Meningitis

[Media nov 15, 2004 Merck Knew Vioxx Was Unsafe by 2000 - Report
Pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co Inc. had evidence by 2000 that its painkiller Vioxx, which was pulled off the market on Sept. 30, was not safe, a heart specialist told CBS News program "60 Minutes" on Sunday.