Idaho will receive $1.1 million as part of a $58 million settlement between pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. Inc. and 30 states that took part in a three-year investigation over the company’s allegedly deceptive promotion of the painkiller Vioxx. Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, whose office filed a consent judgment between Merck and Idaho in the state’s Fourth District Court on Tuesday, said in a press release that the agreement will require Merck to receive approval from the Food and Drug Administration before launching any television drug advertisements. The company must also delay ads for new pain relief drugs if the agency recommends it and comply with any FDA comments on the ads.
“Merck’s aggressive, early direct-to-consumer promotion of Vioxx drove hundreds of thousands of consumers to seek prescriptions before Vioxx’s risks were fully understood,” Wasden said in the press release. “This action gives the FDA clear discretion and authority to make such an assessment on all new Merck pain drugs and requires Merck to submit television ads to the FDA for suggested revisions and acceptance of the final product before running the ads.”
Merck stopped selling Vioxx in 2004 after an independent study showed that the drug increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
The judgment prohibits Merck from using deceptive scientific data when marketing to doctors, ghost writing articles and studies, and failing to adequately disclose conflicts of interest of its promotional speakers.
CONTACT US at 208.336.3768
WANT THREE FREE ISSUES?
