Vioxx Critics Threatened by Merck
An article in the Philadelphia Inquirer reported today that a Harvard Professor lecturing in 2000 on the potential dangers of Vioxx received a call from Merck telling him to stop.
Professor Lee Simon got a call from Louis M. Sherwood, at the time a senior vice president with Merck & Co., regarding the Professor's belief that Vioxx caused more strokes than rival drugs. The article explains
To cultivate experts for their products, drug companies often donate to medical schools, finance research, and sponsor conferences, in addition to paying for clinical trials. Each institution has its own guidelines on whether to accept such financial support.
Companies dangle or withdraw the money at any time, but using it expressly to influence a researcher's opinion is considered by academicians a violation of open scientific debate.
In this environment, Merck and G.D. Searle & Co. - later acquired by Pfizer Inc. - went to battle in 1999 over the multibillion-dollar market in pain relievers called Cox-2 inhibitors. Corporate money quickly tinged the scientific debate by casting researchers as protagonists for one product or another.
In this case, the Merck executive actually told Professor Simon that he would hurt his career if he continued to lecture.
See full article here.
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