Associated Press, "Cardiologist Criticizes Merck Behavior"

          A prominent cardiologist testifying against Merck & Co. accused the drugmaker Saturday of engaging in scientific misconduct, suppressing clinical evidence and stifling medical discourse as it promoted the painkiller [Vioxx].
          Dr. Eric Topol, chairman of the cardiovascular medicine department of the Cleveland Clinic, called certain aspects of Merck's behavior "repulsive" and "appalling" during his three-hour videotaped deposition.
          Topol said Vioxx can cause heart attacks any time after a patient begins taking it, and that its risks were apparent as early as 1999, when the drug was approved. Vioxx was removed from the market last year after a study showed it doubled patients' risk of heart attacks and strokes after 18 months of use.
          "Vioxx's risk has been evident since trails were conducted in 1999 and all the way through the time of withdrawal in September 30, 2004," Topol said.
          Merck argues that the drug wasn't responsible for [the plaintiff's] death, saying problems with Vioxx surface after 18 months of use, not one month, and alleging that plaque in [victim] Irvin's artery ruptured and caused the heart attack, not the drug.
          When he compared the U.S. Food and Drug Administration records of [a Merck Vioxx] study with data in the New England Journal of Medicine, Topol said he found several discrepancies. In particular, he said, the number of deaths and heart attacks were higher in the FDA data. He called the discrepancies "scientific misconduct."
          Topol also said that the company had conducted a trial in 1999 comparing Vioxx to a placebo and nabumetone, another pain reliever, that found Vioxx caused a "760 percent excess rate of heart attacks," but that the study was never published.