“Accidental” Vioxx Deaths During Research Studies
October 14, 2005
Even though the number of Vioxx users that died during research studies was triple the number who died on placebos, researchers did not worry because many of the deaths were “accidental”:
Researcher Saw No Vioxx Warning Sign; Merck Official Says Deaths Were From Variety of Causes
By BONNIE PFISTER, The Associated Press
ATLANTIC CITY - A lawyer for the Idaho postal worker who blames Vioxx for his September 2001 heart attack grilled a Merck & Co. researcher Wednesday about why the company did not alert doctors over deaths among certain Vioxx users five months earlier.
In Vioxx’s second product-liability trial, attorney David Buchanan questioned researcher Dr. Alise Reicin about death rates of people in clinical studies meant to see if Vioxx could also be used to treat Alzheimer’s disease.
While three times as many Vioxx users in those studies died than people taking placebos, or inactive pills, Reicin said some Vioxx users died from accidents, and rates of cardiovascular trouble were the same among the two groups.
“We didn’t view it as a safety signal, because the deaths were so different,” she testified.
Buchanan represents Frederick Humeston, 60, who suffered a heart attack in his Boise home four years ago after taking Vioxx intermittently for two months to ease lingering knee pain.
Merck, which in August was hit with a multimillion-dollar verdict when it lost a Vioxx trial in Texas, says Humeston’s job stress and health risks, not Vioxx, caused his heart attack. The company faces thousands more such lawsuits.
Reicin said some Vioxx users in the Alzheimer’s studies died after they stopped taking the drug, while others died of pneumonia, car crashes and other accidents, according to Merck data.
