Mar
20
Vioxx Fiasco Continues
Filed Under Other - News & Events
Have you heard the latest news about the whole Vioxx fiasco and Merck? Well if you have not been following the debacle, here’s a much simplified overview of what has happened so far as well as the latest update from March 17th, 2009.
Vioxx is an anti-inflammatory drug that was approved by the FDA in 1999. Doctors thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread, and prescribed it to anyone that they could think to prescribe it to. More than 80 million people were prescribed this so called miracle drug.
But then people started having heart attacks and strokes. Merck quickly took the drug off the market because it was widely recognized that it was causing these serious problems. Many people died.
There were lawsuits of course, but many people were not compensated in any way. So a class action suit arose by plaintiffs who wanted to be reimbursed for their out of pocket expenses that came about because of their Vioxx use. It went to court in New Jersey. But the judge decided not to award the plaintiffs anything because the court thought it would simply be too difficult to administer. Imagine that; the courts siding with the great big drug company instead of siding with the people that got hurt at their hands.
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5 Responses to “Vioxx Fiasco Continues”
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Wow. It just goes to show that the medical testing for new pharmaceutical drugs is necessary. With every new drug on the market, comes a new wave of risks, and people just need to be aware of that.
The pharmaceutical industry is all about making money. I have started looking for natural remedies any time I have a health problem. The last thing I want is a prescription from a doctor who has some sort of allegiance to a drug company.
I heard about this story awhile ago. I didnt know so many people where taking this drug and died from it. It is so sad when you see a story like this because it could have been prevented.
Wow that is really scary to know. It is good though that the word is getting out there so that it does not end up happening to more and more people. It can sure be a crazy world out there.
This just sucks. One of the big problems in America now is that the courts and the government keep siding with big corporations instead of looking out for the interests of regular people.