Class Action Lawsuit

The House Government Reform (Congressional) committee dug into Merck & Co.'s marketing practices yesterday, trying to determine whether the company's sales representatives misled doctors about the health risks of Vioxx, the pain killer withdrawn from the market last September.

Meanwhile Merck's CEO, Raymond Gilmartin, was fired.

Merck's detailers were instructed to make eye contact with doctors while firmly shaking their hand. More significantly, when doctors asked about Vioxx' increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke, the detailers were instructed to give them a pamphlet written by Merck's marketing department.

The pamphlet claimed that Vioxx was eight times safer for heart patients than similar painkillers. It omitted Merck's only findings that Vioxx produced a fivefold increase in heart attack and stroke risk compared with naproxen, another popular pain killer.

Arriving late at the Vioxx class action ball, a Chicago law firm says it will file a class action lawsuit on behalf of all Italians who died or were injured by Vioxx.

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