Vioxx study data knowingly skewed

An editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine claims that “authors of a study funded by Vioxx maker Merck & Co. failed to disclose in a report published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2000 that three additional patients in a clinical study suffered heart attacks while using the now-withdrawn painkiller,” according to AP Business writer Linda A. Johnson.

The editorial, written by the journal’s editor in chief, Dr. Jeffrey M. Drazen, executive editor Dr. Gregory D. Curfman and managing editor Stephen Morrissey, also alleges the study’s authors deleted other relevant data before submitting their article for publication.

“Taken together, these inaccuracies and deletions call into question the integrity of the data on adverse cardiovascular events in this article,” the doctors wrote. Excluding the three heart attacks “made certain calculations and conclusions in the article incorrect.”

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