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Drug companies in hot water

Pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. was recently accused by the Journal of the American Medical Association of paying academic scientists to take credit for reports that were actually written by Merck employees. Merck’s painkiller Vioxx, which was pulled from the market in 2004 due to stroke and heart risks, is the subject of the two articles at hand. Merck is said to have downplayed the number of deaths in two studies involving Vioxx, and its failure to prevent and/or treat Alzheimer’s disease.

Merck & Co. stands by their statements that these accusations are deceiving and completely false. In addition to that, it was revealed that five of the six authors of the accusing articles were consultants paid by individuals that had sued Merck over problems concerning Vioxx. Merck claims that these reports are prejudiced because all authors were influenced by people who had previously challenged Merck in court, or testified about the risks of Vioxx before Senate.

Although these accusations are aimed strongly at Merck, other pharmaceutical companies have been identified for claiming that academic scientists had more of a role in the writing of research articles about their drugs. All companies are urged to identify what function each member involved performed in writing such research articles.

When a drug study is initiated, it is necessary to perform the necessary research, evaluate the results, and finally, prepare these results so that they can be printed in a medical publication. If a pharmaceutical company does not want to be accused of releasing altered reports, it is also necessary for them to employ independent scientists for each of those steps, rather than utilizing their own.

One incident which has Merck in hot water involves the failure on their part to report data found after two studies in an accurate and timely manner. In the study, patients that took the drug Vioxx had a higher death rate than those who were given a dummy pill. Merck failed to report the number of deaths resulting from taking Vioxx accurately. Merck denies these claims, stating that the previously mentioned deaths were not a result of the patient taking Vioxx.

In an Alzheimer study published by Merck, the list of authors included several academic scientists who were never before mentioned during the study, when in fact the principal contributors to the study were scientists employed by Merck. Once again, however, Merck denied the claims, stating that all parties listed were personally involved in the studies. Merck did state that they sometimes have external companies brought in to write up studies, but only scientists who read and edit the documents are listed as authors. In an attempt to correct these problems, medical journals such as JAMA are creating stricter rules and policies regarding the articles they publish.

Silberstein, Awad & Miklos, P.C.
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