[Kagan:] There could be more trouble on the horizon for Merck, for the maker of Vioxx. An editorial in "The New England Journal of Medicine" suggests the drugmaker wasn't completely forthcoming about its pain reliever. Our Allan Chernoff joins us from New York with more on that, as well as legal news surrounding the company. Hello.
[Allan Chernoff, Cnn Correspondent:] Hi, Daryn. Well, At a minimum, this is another embarrassment for Merck, which had to pull Vioxx from the market last year, but it also could be a serious blow to the company's defense in thousands of Vioxx lawsuits. "The New England Journal of Medicine" says that Merck withheld data from a study on Vioxx, failing to report in the journal that three patients suffered heart attacks while taking the drug in the clinical trial. The "Journal" and its editorial is saying, quote, "We determined from a computer diskette that some of these data were deleted from the Vigor manuscript that's the namist study two days before it was initially submitted to the 'Journal.'" The editorial concludes, "These inaccuracies and deletions call into question the integrity of the data." Merck says it did nothing wrong. The article, the company says, focused only on initial datat of the study, and "described the results of the study as of the pre-specified cutoff date for analysis." The three heart attacks, Merck says, occurred after the cutoff date and were later reported to the Food and Drug Administration. Merck withdrew Vioxx in September of 2004, nearly four years after the "Journal" article when a separate study showed the drug could double the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients taking it for more than a year and a half Daryn.
[Kagan:] Allan, they could quibble back and forth about whether this information should have been included in that piece. One thing is for sure, Merck has a ton of legal troubles 7,000 different lawsuits, and then there's this federal trial in Texas right now, and the jury is deliberating. Could this information affect that big trial?
[Chernoff:] Well, as you say, the jury is already deliberating. Today is the second day of deliberations. So the evidence has already been presented in that trial. So it's unlikely this would have any impact right there. Although on appeal, if there is an appeal in this case, certainly the issue then could come up, but for other lawsuits, it's very much likely to play a role here, because this has been a key defense for Merck, pointing to this actual study.
[Kagan:] And all these legal troubles, Vioxx at one point was the wonder drug, especially for the bottom line of Merck, and now it faces some financial trouble.
[Chernoff:] Merck is really suffering. The stock has been hammered, no question about it. I mean, this is a drug that 20 million people were taking. It was one of the blockbusters for Merck, and also keep in mind, Merck used to be the premiere pharmaceutical company in this nation, and now it's really struggle severely, just facing an onslaught, as you said, of lawsuits.
[Kagan:] Allan Chernoff in New York City. Thank you. We are going to the movies ahead. And there's a movie coming out that definitely is not your father's cowboy movie. Up next, Mr. Moviefone joins us to talk about "Brokeback Mountain" and other new arrivals in the theaters this weekend.