Copland comments on Merck “putting profit before life”

“I must admit I get angry when I keep hearing the ‘putting profit before life’ boilerplate. As Ted pointed out after the Ernst verdict came down, Vioxx and other COX-2 inhibitors save lives because they do not cause the stomach problems associated with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like aspirin and ibuprofen, which take 16,500 lives per year. The question is whether the risks associated with Vioxx are worth more or less than the lives the drug saves. The Food and Drug Administration, based on the evidence then available, initially determined that the cost-benefit analysis for the drug came out in favor of letting Vioxx onto the market. Even with what we know now, that initial decision might have been the right one.

And we wouldn’t have had a better picture of Vioxx’s health risks if Merck had sponsored a faulty, poorly controlled test.”

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