Re: Should the responsible Merck executives go to jail?
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Vioxx, as I'm sure you in your medical capacities know, is still the best NSAID ever developed. I'm mad at the executives on many accounts--including the fact that because of their unethical behaviour, people who probably SHOULD take this drug---those suffering from rheumatoid arthritis for example--won't anymore because of the stigma attached to it, and their physicians'entirely legitimate fears regarding liability.
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The FDA often seems to be in the business of avoiding egg on the face. Plus they make ridiculous moves to falsely address problems. E.g., they wil soon require all pregnancy tests done for monitoring on Accutane to be done in a certified lab instead of with over-the-counter urine tests in the doctor's office. Somebody thought it was a bright idea to make sure the tests were good, never bothering to calculate that the move would cost over $4 billion and millions of patient-hours miminum per birth defect prevented. I conclude that FDA panels should be required to be at least a third people with math or epidemiology degrees, and that law should require the panel to do a simple cost-per-event-prevented analysis and sign off on spending other people's money.
Many people who benefitted tremendously from Vioxx but not other antiinflammatories would glady and rationally take the extra risk.
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