The allegations come from new research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The magazine said Merck offered to pay doctors to sign their names to Vioxx studies ghostwritten by medical publishing companies even if the physicians had little or no involvement in the research.
The study's authors believe that so-called "ghostwriting" practices are widespread throughout the pharmaceutical industry and recommended stricter regulations be put in place.
Merck, based in Whitehouse Station, NJ, pulled Vioxx off the market in 2004 after a study linked it to heart disease. The company has agreed to pay $4.85 billion to settle tens of thousands of patient claims that Vioxx, used by 84 million people worldwide, caused heart attacks or strokes.
Researchers analyzed court documents filed in lawsuits on behalf of patients who had taken Vioxx. Lawsuits against Merck are currently underway in both Canada and the United States. Vioxx, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, was used to treat rheumatoid and osteoarthritis, migraines and other pain conditions.
The new research also found that Merck's own internal analysis of two studies testing the drug for Alzheimer's disease showed a threefold increase in the risk of death in patients on Vioxx compared to those who had taken a placebo in 2001. However, it was not until 2003 that the company submitted the data to U.S. drug regulators, Canadian Press Agency reported.
Merck responded to the findings by saying that the studies are "false, misleading or lack context," and that it had, in fact, made the data about the risks of Vioxx public.
Merck lawyer Jim Fitzpatrick said in a statement that the "deaths were from all sorts of causes, like car accidents and electric shocks and other things that could not possibly have been drug-related." The company said it found no pattern suggesting Vioxx was to blame for deaths in the Alzheimer's studies in 2001.
