Merck chief quits as further material on Vioxx emerges
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《英国医生杂志》
The chief executive officer and chairman of Merck, Raymond Gilmartin, resigned unexpectedly last week, the same day a damning US Congress report on the company was released.
Even though Mr Gilmartin stepped down hurriedly a year ahead of schedule, Merck's official position is that the resignation was not connected to the growing global controversy over its anti-arthritis drug rofecoxib (Vioxx), which was withdrawn from the market late last year, after studies produced evidence linking it to heart problems ( BMJ 2004;329: 816).
He will be replaced by the company's current head of manufacturing, Richard Clark. "Dick is a great choice to become the next chief executive officer," said Mr Gilmartin, in Merck's prepared statement about his resignation. "He has successfully led many of the company's most important strategic initiatives."
At the same time as Mr Gilmartin was resigning, a leading Democrat member of the US Congress's Government Reform Committee, at the start of a Congressional hearing looking into "the roles of FDA and pharmaceutical companies in ensuring the safety of approved drugs, like Vioxx," released a scathing critique of the strategies Merck had used to market rofecoxib. In response to a request from the committee the company released more than 20 000 pages of internal documents and promotional memos, including course curriculums, training manuals, and talking points for its sales force (http://democrats.reform.house.gov/story.asp?ID=848).
"Based on a review of the Merck documents," wrote the high profile Congressional representative Henry Waxman, "it appears that Merck sent over 3000 highly trained representatives into doctors' offices and hospitals armed with misleading information about Vioxx's health risks."
According to Mr Waxman's analysis, the Merck documents show that the company's sales force was urged to persuade doctors that rofecoxib was safer than other anti-inflammatory drugs, at a time when scientific studies were indicating the contrary. Drug representatives were apparently prohibited from discussing studies with contrary findings.
The Washington Post reports Dennis Erb, Merck's vice president for global regulatory development, as saying the company's actions were timely and appropriate and that staff were trained to be "accurate and balanced" in presenting information. "We believe Merck acted appropriately and responsibly," he said (www.washingtonpost.com, 6 May 2005).(Ray Moynihan)
Even though Mr Gilmartin stepped down hurriedly a year ahead of schedule, Merck's official position is that the resignation was not connected to the growing global controversy over its anti-arthritis drug rofecoxib (Vioxx), which was withdrawn from the market late last year, after studies produced evidence linking it to heart problems ( BMJ 2004;329: 816).
He will be replaced by the company's current head of manufacturing, Richard Clark. "Dick is a great choice to become the next chief executive officer," said Mr Gilmartin, in Merck's prepared statement about his resignation. "He has successfully led many of the company's most important strategic initiatives."
At the same time as Mr Gilmartin was resigning, a leading Democrat member of the US Congress's Government Reform Committee, at the start of a Congressional hearing looking into "the roles of FDA and pharmaceutical companies in ensuring the safety of approved drugs, like Vioxx," released a scathing critique of the strategies Merck had used to market rofecoxib. In response to a request from the committee the company released more than 20 000 pages of internal documents and promotional memos, including course curriculums, training manuals, and talking points for its sales force (http://democrats.reform.house.gov/story.asp?ID=848).
"Based on a review of the Merck documents," wrote the high profile Congressional representative Henry Waxman, "it appears that Merck sent over 3000 highly trained representatives into doctors' offices and hospitals armed with misleading information about Vioxx's health risks."
According to Mr Waxman's analysis, the Merck documents show that the company's sales force was urged to persuade doctors that rofecoxib was safer than other anti-inflammatory drugs, at a time when scientific studies were indicating the contrary. Drug representatives were apparently prohibited from discussing studies with contrary findings.
The Washington Post reports Dennis Erb, Merck's vice president for global regulatory development, as saying the company's actions were timely and appropriate and that staff were trained to be "accurate and balanced" in presenting information. "We believe Merck acted appropriately and responsibly," he said (www.washingtonpost.com, 6 May 2005).(Ray Moynihan)