While gov’t lies about pot…
(Washington Post) Two teams of researchers with access to thousands of documents gathered for lawsuits over the painkiller V i o x x allege that Merck waged a campaign of deception to promote its drug, moving slowly to warn of possible hazards while at the same time dressing up in-house studies as the work of independent academic researchers.
V i o x x, whose generic name is rofecoxib, went on the market in 1999. It became a “blockbuster,” with $2.3 billion in sales in 2003, but Merck voluntarily withdrew it in September 2004 after several studies showed that it increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Since then, Merck has been named in 26,500 lawsuits by people who say the drug harmed them. Last fall, the company created a $4.85 billion fund to settle the claims while not admitting that V i o x x caused heart attacks, strokes or deaths.
(Washington Post) Federal regulators suspect that Baxter International’s recalled blood thinner, heparin, was intentionally contaminated to increase profit, the head of the Food and Drug Administration said yesterday. Baxter recalled most of its heparin products in February after reports of allergic reactions and deaths. An FDA investigation later uncovered a heparin-like substance in some batches of the drug’s active ingredient, which is made in China.
FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach added that the FDA is not investigating the motive, but would leave that to Chinese officials.
Maybe if our federal government stopped spending so much time and resources fighting the medical marijuana that never killed anyone, they could step up regulation and testing of the pharmaceuticals that are killing people.
(Sorry about the weird spelling of V i o x x. Our servers keep eating the post if I spell it correctly. Must be some sort of spam protection.)
Tags: Merck
