In an editorial published just hours ago, the New England Journal of Medicine blasts Merck for withholding key data regarding heart attacks caused by the use of their drug Vioxx. According to the statement released by the Journal, “we learned that relevant data on cardiovascular outcomes had been deleted from the VIGOR manuscript prior to its submission to the Journal and that the authors had withheld data on other relevant cardiovascular outcomes. The evidence has raised questions about the integrity of the data on adverse cardiovascular events in the article and about the article’s conclusions.
This recent development occurred as a result of plaintiffs’ lawyers deposing the executive editor of the Journal and subpoenaeing documents from Merck.