"Merck & Co. Chief Executive Officer Raymond Gilmartin said his first indication that the painkiller Vioxx carried a heart risk came on Sept. 23, and the company withdrew the medicine a week later."
. . .
"Dr. Eric Topol, the Cleveland Clinic's chairman of cardiovascular medicine, told the CBS news program ``60 Minutes'' last night that data from a 1998 Merck clinical trial called ``Study 090'' found that serious cardiovascular events occurred about six times more often in patients taking Vioxx than in those taking other arthritis drugs or a placebo. The study was never published, Topol said.
"The combination of 'Study 090' with a larger trial, known as Vigor, performed a year later should have raised alarms at Merck in 2000, Topol told the show." [Bloomberg]
