Vioxx Jury Rules against Merck_Bayer-FDA collusion killed thousands of hemophill

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Fri, 18 Aug 2006 00:13:43 -0000

[sSRI-Research] Vioxx Jury Rules against Merck_Bayer-FDA

collusion killed thousands of hemophill

 

 

 

 

ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RESEARCH PROTECTION (AHRP)

Promoting Openness, Full Disclosure, and Accountability

http://www.ahrp.org

 

FYI

 

1. A federal jury found that the giant drug manufacturer Merck

failed to warn doctors about the medical risks of Vioxx. The jury

ruled that the company must pay a retired F.B.I. agent who suffered a

heart attack while taking the drug $51 million in damages.

 

Had FDA been doing its mandated oversight job Merck would likely not

have broken the law by concealing the lethal risks of its drug. But

FDA's collusion with drug manufacturers leaves the public at the mercy

of rogue companies and an unscrupulous business culture.

 

2. Recently, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough revisited a shocking

investigative news report by New York Times reporters, WALT BOGDANICH

AND ERIC KOLI, published May 22, 2003.

 

The subject was corporate crime: Bayer pharmaceutical company

documents (from its Cutter Biological unit) that had been uncovered

during a lawsuit, revealed that in 1985, Bayer and the FDA colluded by

knowingly and deliberately putting thousands of hemophiliacs at risk

of death by selling an AIDS-infected blood clotting drug in Asia and

Latin America. See: http://www.ahrp.org/infomail/0503/22.php

 

The Times reported that FDA official, Dr. Harry Meyer, willingly

helped Bayer cover up " one of the worst drug-related medical disasters

in history. " Meyer suggested that the issue should be " quietly solved

without alerting the Congress, the medical community and the public. "

 

Attorney, Mike Papantonio

http://www.ringoffireradio.com/mike_papantonio.asp, who with Robert

Kennedy Jr, co-hosts, Ring of Fire, said in an interview with

Scarborough, that this lethal product was also sold in Spain, France,

and Japan, killing thousands--especially children.

 

He stated emphatically that the internal documents show that Bayer

" absolutely, positively knew [the product] was infected and would

likely kill thousands of people " but that it set out to " profit by

disaster. " see video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS3mhjt7TrY & search=Bayer

 

When the French government learned of it, company officials went to

jail. In the US no pharmaceutical corporate criminals have ever been

held accountable nor indicted

 

Bayer's corporate culture is shaped by its history of profitteering

both from the Nazi genocide operation and medical atrocities at

Auschwitz.

 

But, that the criminal activities of this archetype rogue corporation

are countenanced by complicit FDA offiials is even more shocking.

 

Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav

212-595-8974

veracare

 

 

August 17, 2006

Federal Jury Rules Against Merck

By JEREMY W. PETERS

 

A federal jury found today that the giant drug manufacturer Merck

failed to warn doctors about the medical risks of Vioxx, its

once-popular prescription painkiller. The jury ruled that the company

must pay a retired F.B.I. agent who suffered a heart attack while

taking the drug $51 million in damages.

 

Merck took Vioxx off the market in September 2004 after a clinical

trial showed that it could cause heart attacks and strokes.

 

Today's verdict follows two recent court rulings in Vioxx cases that

went in the company's favor. Earlier this month, a California jury

found that the drug did not cause the heart attack that Stewart

Grossberg, now 71, suffered in September 2001. And in July, a New

Jersey jury found that Vioxx played no role in the 2004 heart attack

of Elaine Doherty, now 68.

 

Merck still faces some 14,000 lawsuits over Vioxx, involving about

27,000 plaintiffs, in federal and state courts.

 

In Vioxx cases heard across the country so far, the outcomes have been

mixed. Of the nine cases in which juries have reached verdicts, the

decisions have been in Merck's favor five times. Today's verdict

brings the total number of cases decided against the drug giant to four.

 

The verdict today, handed up in New Orleans, came in the case of

Gerald Barnett, 62, who suffered a heart attack in 2002 and later

underwent quadruple bypass surgery. The jury rejected the company's

assertion that Mr. Barnett's history of heart disease bore all the

blame for the attack, and found that the company was liable because it

" knowingly misrepresented or failed to disclose " important information

about the drug to Mr. Barnett's doctors. The jury said Merck " acted in

wanton, malicious, willful or reckless disregard " for Mr. Barnett's

rights.

 

The company has maintained that it did nothing wrong in marketing

Vioxx, and promptly withdrew the drug once its dangers became known.

It has also maintained that there was no heart risk if patients took

the drug for less than 18 months, and has said it will fight every

lawsuit brought by people who claim that Vioxx caused their injuries.

 

A Merck spokesman said the company had no immediate comment but

planned to issue a statement later today.

 

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