Thread: Merck’s Vioxx scandal widens: Drug maker knew Vioxx was deadly for years before risk

Mike Adams
NaturalNews
Wednesday, Nov 25th, 2009

The Vioxx scandal widened this week as new research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine reveals that Vioxx maker Merck held data for three years that proved Vioxx caused an alarming increase in the risk of heart attacks and strokes. And yet Merck chose not to release that data. In fact, it took three more years of patients dying from heart attacks before Vioxx was pulled off the market, and even then, Merck insisted the drug was not dangerous.

This new study was based on a meta-analysis of several unpublished studies that Merck obviously didn’t want to see published in medical journals. Drug companies routinely engage in this subterfuge: They cherry-pick which studies they want published while burying the rest. They also choose which studies to forward to the FDA, all while claiming the whole charade is based on “evidence-based medicine.�

It is, sort of. If you add the word “selective� in front of the phrase, making it: “Selective evidence-based medicine.�

So how were the authors of this new study able to find these unpublished studies that Merck would much prefer remained hidden? They were disclosed in court proceedings against Merck. So many people were harmed by Vioxx, you see, that some of them decided to sue. And in that legal process, many “secret� studies were revealed. Some smart-minded researchers decided to analyze the data in those studies and that’s what reveals Merck knew Vioxx raised the risk of heart-related side effects by 35 percent and yet did nothing to warn the public about those risks.

In essence, these documents prove that Merck knowingly and maliciously allowed a deadly drug to continue to be sold to patients for years. It’s a clear case of profits before patients from a drug company mired in one scandal after another. (Merck is also the maker of Gardasil, the cervical cancer vaccine.)

In its defense, Merck says its own scientists couldn’t find any link between Vioxx and heart attack deaths. Understandably, it’s difficult to find anything when your profits depend on not finding it.

Mercks Vioxx scandal widens: Drug maker knew Vioxx was deadly for years before risk was made public FOTR 340x1692

The Merck conspiracy
Now that this data is public, it reveals that Merck’s executives and / or employees were engaged in a conspiracy to withhold important drug safety data from the public and the FDA. The aim of this conspiracy was simple: To maximize profits through the sale of a product they knew was killing people.

Of course, only the naive are surprised to hear this. Informed NaturalNews readers already know this is the default behavior of drug companies. They’ll do anything to make a buck, including fabricating clinical trial data, withholding important evidence, misrepresenting their drugs in television ads and lobbying lawmakers to make their drugs mandatory. The idea that they would knowingly sell a deadly drug to the general public — while sitting on data for years that proved the drug was dangerous — isn’t really surprising. Not once you know how the pharmaceutical industry really works, anyway.

Many people (and many states) are fed up with the criminal behavior of drug companies. Nearly 10,000 individuals filed personal injury lawsuits against Merck over the Vioxx scandal. Most were settled for $4.85 billion in 2007, but many lawsuits remain. Eleven states’ Attorneys General have also filed lawsuits against Merck, alleging the company committed fraud in its marketing of the drug to state Medicaid programs. Those lawsuits have yet to be resolved.

More legal action against Merck is no doubt on the way, as the company has engaged in questionable marketing practices spanning many different drugs (not just Vioxx). Drug companies like Merck have operated in the shadows for years, hiding data they knew would be damaging to their profits. These actions no doubt resulted in the needless deaths of tens of thousands of health consumers who would likely be alive today if this hidden data had been made public in 2001 when it was first known by Merck.

Merck’s actions fit the legal definition of “negligent homicide.� By withholding this important information, Merck indirectly caused the deaths of thousands of people. And yet somehow Merck’s executives and employees are literally “getting away with murder� as there are no efforts under way to prosecute these people for their crimes.

I have to ask the obvious question: Why aren’t Merck’s executives being arrested and hauled off to prison for prosecution? If this were a Wall Street scandal, you’d see the head honchos in handcuffs, paraded on videos blasted across the evening news. But when it comes to pharmaceuticals, it’s just business as usual. No one is held accountable. All those dead Americans essentially have their graves spit on by the failed justice system in this country that allows murderous corporations to continue killing more people with their deadly products.

The reason for all this is simple: America values money more than it values lives. When peoples’ investments are destroyed, that’s a crime. But when peoples’ lives are destroyed by a dangerous pharmaceutical product, that’s nobody’s fault. Accountability is non-existent.

It sure puts America’s priorities into perspective, doesn’t it? Public safety has been all but abandoned by the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry — an industry ruled by nothing other than the almighty dollar. And yet, here’s something that puts it all into yet more perspective: According to Congressional testimony about Vioxx from drug safety experts, Vioxx alone killed more Americans than the entire Vietnam War.

Is that something worth investigating for potential prosecution? If you value human life, then yes, absolutely. So why do Merck’s executives all seem to be immune to the law? Why is the Department of Justice too timid to go after one of the most dangerous organizations in the country that has killed many times more Americans than all terrorists combined?

Why isn’t Merck on the FBI’s “America’s Most Wanted� list?

And why do the American people tolerate such corporate behavior on their own soil? Is killing people with chemicals any less serious than killing people with bullets? Imagine the public outcry if a car company sold a defective vehicle that resulted in the deaths of more than 60,000 people… that would be shocking headline news. But when it comes to pharmaceutical deaths, the people remain strangely silent.

And the reason? There’s no video footage of people dying. Pharmaceutical deaths are silent, whimpering deaths. No fiery crashes. No flying body parts. No explosions to splash across the evening news. Just millions of people being individually and chemically snuffed out, all around the world, after taking patented prescription drugs sold by companies that lied to them about their safety.

Bird Flu Pandemic
November 25, 2009


http://www.infowars.com/images/ukraineflu.jpg

New reports from Iowa and North Carolina are raising concerns that the deadly H1N1 swine flu mutations that have been confirmed by the WHO in Ukraine, Norway and elsewhere have already reached the United States. In Iowa, a report that doctors are seeing “very heavy, wet hemorrhagic lungs, lungs with a lot of blood in them” in H1N1 patients is creating concerns among health experts that the deadly Ukraine H1N1 has already spread there. In addition, a report of Tamiflu-resistant H1N1 swine flu in North Carolina is raising questions about the ability of medical authorities to combat H1N1 if thousands of people do start dying. If deadly H1N1 swine flu mutations have already reached the United States, what does that mean? Doctors in Ukraine have been reporting that victims of H1N1 there are experiencing violent hemorrhaging in their lungs. As the patients near death, their lungs reportedly become as “black as charcoal” and literally begin to disintegrate. Will this start happening soon inside the U.S.?


Last week, the WHO confirmed that an H1N1 mutation had been discovered in Ukraine.


The news report causing the most concern today is the one about H1N1 patients in Iowa. Commenting on a dramatic spike in H1N1 deaths in Iowa, Dr. Gregory Schmunk told KCCI news that what doctors there are seeing ”is very heavy, wet hemorrhagic lungs, lungs with a lot of blood in them.”

Hemorrhagic lungs that are filled with blood?

That sounds precisely like what is taking place in Ukraine.

Last week, the WHO confirmed that an H1N1 mutation had been discovered in Ukraine. This H1N1 mutation involved a receptor binding domain change, and it is apparently causing the H1N1 virus to become much more virulent.

Just like the new report in Iowa, many victims of H1N1 in Ukraine have been experiencing violent hemorrhaging in the lungs. Temperatures inside the lungs of patients in Ukraine have been reported to be as high as 135 degrees Fahrenheit. As the patient near death, the lungs turn to mush and literally become as black as charcoal.

In fact, one doctor in Western Ukraine was quoted as saying the following about what is happening to the lungs of these patients…..

“We have carried out post mortems on two victims and found their lungs are as black as charcoal. They look like they have been burned. It’s terrifying.”

If that wasn’t bad enough, the WHO has now confirmed that the same H1N1 mutation has shown up in Norway.

Norway’s Institute of Public Health has released a statement in which they announced that this mutation “could possibly…cause more severe disease” because it apparently infects tissue deeper in the airway than usual.

Not only that, but today Hong Kong’s Department of Health has confirmed that it has found the same mutation in a H1N1 flu virus sample as the one detected in Norway recently.

Hong Kong is on the other side of the world from Ukraine and Norway.

What in the world is going on?

Nobody knows for sure, but the truth is that the increasing similarities between the current H1N1 outbreak and the 1918 “Spanish flu” outbreak are becoming too striking to ignore.

Firstly, both the current outbreak and the 1918 Spanish flu are from the H1N1 family.

Secondly, both the current outbreak and the 1918 Spanish flu have the same mutation that is currently being reported in Ukraine, Norway and Hong Kong.

Thirdly, the hemorrhagic deaths that victims are experiencing in Ukraine closely mirror the kind of deaths experienced by victims of the 1918 Spanish flu. Just consider the following description of 1918 Spanish flu deaths from Wikipedia…..



“One of the most striking of the complications was hemorrhage from mucous membranes, especially from the nose, stomach, and intestine. Bleeding from the ears and petechial hemorrhages in the skin also occurred.” The majority of deaths were from bacterial pneumonia, a secondary infection caused by influenza, but the virus also killed people directly, causing massive hemorrhages and edema in the lung.”

You would think this stunning information would be so important that the mainstream media would be all over it, but sadly that is not the case. Instead they seem intent on covering the opening of the “New Moon” movie and whatever Barack Obama had for breakfast this morning.

But not only is the mutation discussed above a tremendous concern, but now there are confirmed reports that Tamiflu-resistant H1N1 is spreading.

Recently a Tamiflu-resistant strain of the H1N1 swine flu was reported to have been discovered in Wales, and now a Tamiflu-resistant cluster of the H1N1 swine flu has been reported in North Carolina.

However, medical authorities don’t seem overly concerned. Dr. Alicia Frye, epidemiologist in the CDC’s flu division, said in a prepared statement that “at this time we don’t have any information that should raise concerns for the general population.”

If the best drugs medical authorities have will soon not work against H1N1, perhaps the public should be concerned.

Meanwhile the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention has announced that swine flu deaths in Europe are doubling every two weeks.

Swine flu deaths in Europe are doubling every two weeks?

Perhaps the mainstream media should start paying attention to this.

Posted below is one of the very few mainstream media video reports we have about the “black lung” flu that is ravaging Ukraine…..