More Medical Study Results made Public by Drug Firms
January 8, 2006 08:19

Salt Lake Tribune: "Drug companies are making public more information about medical studies they are conducting, but some still withhold key details, a new analysis of a federal registry finds. Merck & Co., stung by allegations that it hid information on Vioxx's dangers, gets somewhat better marks in the new analysis than it did in an earlier one. However, Pfizer Inc., GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Novartis AG are lagging, according to the report in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine. In May, the Journal's editor-in-chief accused Merck, Pfizer and Glaxo of making a mockery of efforts to increase the transparency of such experiments, called clinical trials. The new report shows some progress, said its chief author, Deborah Zarin of the National Library of Medicine, which runs the registry. 'We're getting a lot of trials being registered,' including many that U.S. drug companies are doing in foreign countries, she said."

LA Times, 1/3/06 : "For someone mired in judicial purgatory, Superior Court Judge Carol E. Higbee is remarkably upbeat. She doesn't want pity - many judges work as hard, she says. She doesn't want publicity - it makes her uncomfortable, and she grants interview requests grudgingly. She just wants justice - and she's ready to dispense it, one Vioxx case at a time, even if it takes a lifetime. And at the current rate, it could, assuming the cases are not settled or withdrawn. Higbee, 55, is the New Jersey judge assigned to thousands of cases brought in state court against Merck & Co. over its now-withdrawn painkiller Vioxx. The lawsuits - all 4,333 of them - blame the pharmaceutical company for heart attacks and strokes suffered by users."