Re: Should the responsible Merck executives go to jail?
[ QUOTE ]
I would only ask, "greater than acceptable" to whom? Everyone has their own levels of risk they are willing to take as a trade-off for treating debilitating arthritic pain, for instance. The risks should be published honestly of course, but the decision on whether the risks are greater than acceptible or not should be made by each patient for themselves.
[/ QUOTE ]
wow, this is insane, do you realize what a system like this would look like?
[ QUOTE ]
Personally I blame the FDA for this. Seriously. Ok maybe not directly the perverse incentives caused by the FDA indirectly led to the pressures that caused this lie to take place.
If we americans were treated like grownups this wouldn't have happened.
natedogg
[/ QUOTE ]
this is crazy sauce, the FDA is responsible??? vioxx should never have been released to the market in the first place, that is the source of this problem. the drug got ingrained to the public through direct to consumer ads, and people started gushing about the drug. this is of course an awful way of evaluating the drug, because the thousands of people who died from taking it dont really voice an opinion.
it was tested in a small sample of patients, then the FDA approved it. it was one of the first drugs to be a part of direct to consumer ads, which made the situation worse. then after a while on the market, everyone at merck realizes that the drug is unsafe and is killing people. merck lies about this and tries to cover it up. the FDA finally realizes this, and takes the drug off the market. when the drug is tested or taken in a large sample, then the dangerous side effects become much more apparent than they did when they were initially tested in the small sample. the drug was incorrectly released to the public in the first place because it was badly tested and the results may have been fudged. the makes the situation 10x worse since the public has been taking the drug and now we have people who are angry it is being taken off the market. not to mention the thousands of peole who have died from taking it.
|