In 2004, pharmaceutical giant Merck pulled its painkiller Vioxx from the market because of heart problems, strokes and death among participants of a large study under way at the time. The untold story, before now, is that Merck had conducted another large study in 1999, and although similar heart problems were revealed, that study was not stopped and the problems not made public. That’s because a “safety panel” monitoring the study did not intervene even though there were clearly more cardiac events with the group taking Vioxx compared to the group taking naproxen. The problems appeared after just 4-6 weeks. Why did this happen? Believe it or not, one of the panel’s members was a Merck employee, another lied about ties to Merck, and when rheumatologist Michael Weinblatt of Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston was appointed head the safety panel, he owned $73,000 of Merck stock!

NPR interviewed three scientists who are authorities on heart disease and clinical studies. Their findings and more about the conflict of interest that, according to the FDA’s own scientist, cost the lives of 38,000 Vioxx users over 5 years are detailed at npr.org. For more see “Conflicted Safety Panel Let Vioxx Study Continue”