How much money did merck make on vioxx

View all comments. But the agreement is far smaller than Wall Street analysts and lawyers predicted when Merck withdrew Vioxx, and especially after the verdict in the first case. Business News. What is clear is that we ain’t there yet. HT CMAorg. Awards will depend on how long a person took the medication and the severity of injury.

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The Dow component stock MRK, It also suspended its previously issued third- and fourth-quarter estimates. The drug has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and menstrual cramps. In a conference call early Thursday, Merck executives said that the company expects to meet dividend estimates. The executives added that they foresaw future dividends to be «consistent» and «competitive.

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Snigdha Prakash. An informal survey of medical schools by NPR found that some schools rely on funding from pharmaceutical and other health-industry sources. The issue is taking on increasing importance. Government funding for medical research is not expected to increase in coming years and could decline. Medical schools will be more reliant on private, for-profit industry for funding. That raises concerns about academic freedom and restrictions on what researchers can and cannot say in print and in public. Because of intense interest in this report, NPR has decided to present a full transcript.

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Snigdha Prakash. An informal survey of medical schools by NPR found that some schools rely on funding from pharmaceutical and other health-industry sources. The issue is taking on increasing importance. Government funding for medical research is not expected to increase in coming years and could decline. Medical schools will be more reliant on private, for-profit industry for funding. That raises concerns about academic freedom and restrictions on what researchers can and cannot say in print and in public.

Because of intense interest in this report, NPR has decided to present a full transcript. Introduction: NPR’s story about Merck and its efforts to suppress safety concerns about the painkiller Vioxx continues with a look at how Merck exerted its influence in the world of top medical institutions. NPR’s Snighda Prakash presents part two of her report. Transcript: Dr. Louis Sherwood’s campaign to «fix» Vioxx critic Gurkirpal Singh began with a series of phone calls to Singh’s bosses at Stanford University.

The call came on Oct. He says Sherwood hinted there would be repercussions for Fries and Stanford if Singh’s statements didn’t stop. He was left with the sense that Merck’s financial support to Stanford was at risk. Fries started making calls of his own and learned that researchers at seven other institutions, including the University of Minnesota, the University of Texas Southwestern and a Harvard teaching hospital, had also raised doubts about Vioxx’s safety.

Sherwood had placed calls to those institutions as. At Merck, Medical Director Sherwood wrote an e-mail how much money did merck make on vioxx bring the marketing department up to speed. NPR has obtained that e-mail.

It suggests that part of Merck’s strategy to suppress criticism was intimidation. The e-mail, dated Nov. I will keep the pressure on and get others at Stanford to help. Sherwood advises one of the marketing executives how to pressure Singh. He says: «Tell Singh that we’ve told his boss about his Merck-bashing. Lisa Bero is a professor of clinical pharmacy and health policy at the University of California, San Francisco.

She’s done extensive research showing how funding from drug companies influences academic science. She reviewed Sherwood’s email at NPR’s request. Another document written by Sherwood shows Merck tried to use that influence on several occasions. The letter questioned the propriety of Sherwood’s calls.

Sherwood wrote an internal memo in response. NPR has obtained that memo. In it, Sherwood writes there was no «orchestrated campaign or specific program» to deal with what he calls ‘»problem individuals.

The memo, dated Jan. And Sherwood implies that when that happened, he did lean on Vioxx critics — and on their institutions: «Without trying to appear immodest, I believe I am the most respected physician in the pharmaceutical industry among academic chairs and deans Therefore, when I call them on a matter of urgent concern, they generally take it seriously This has been a source of strength NPR surveyed several medical schools and found that’s not unusual.

Merck and Sherwood deny the allegations in this story. Ted Mayer, a lawyer representing Merck, says, «Merck was not trying to silence critics.

The scientific or the safety profile of this product was very well known in data that was available to the public, and it was vigorously debated in the public, and it’s perfectly appropriate to have that vigorous debate. Mayer says Merck was concerned about Dr. How much money did merck make on vioxx because many of his talks went far beyond that vigorous debate: «The number of people who heard those talks and who were physicians and understood the data well believed that those talks contained unbalanced and inaccurate information, and that the views weren’t supported by the data and were kind of at the extreme end among hundreds of scientists who were making these kinds of presentations.

In an interview with NPR, Dr. Louis Sherwood says it was rare for him to complain to department heads. He says he firmly believes in academic freedom. He says he only made calls when faculty members were being unfair to Merck and acting unprofessionally.

But under no circumstances did I threaten Stanford or Dr. Fries or anyone with funding issues or anything. That would’ve been inappropriate. Drummond Rennie, deputy editor of the Journal of the American Medical Associationnotes that «each one of those is somebody, is a real person, with a real family, real people who grieve for. Merck says its physicians strongly believed in the safety and benefits of Vioxx.

The company says the risks of Vioxx weren’t clear until just last fall, when, it says, Merck acted promptly and voluntarily withdrew Vioxx. Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player. Don’t Tell Me! NPR Shop. NPR’s story about Merck and its efforts to suppress safety concerns about the painkiller Vioxx continues with a look at how Merck exerted its influence in the world of top medical institutions. NPR’s Snighda Prakash reports.

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