Vioxx Scientist Denies Test Results Were Hidden ; Bomb Scare Disrupts Proceedings in Atlantic City Courtroom

Summary

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ATLANTIC CITY A scientist who helped develop the painkiller Vioxx rejected assertions by a plaintiff's lawyer Wednesday that Merck & Co. actively tried to conceal from regulators unfavorable data about the popular arthritis drug's potential heart safety problems.

In a court session delayed briefly by a bomb scare, Dr. Briggs Morrison defended the company's handling of a 1995 clinical study of the effect of so-called Cox-2 inhibitors such as Vioxx on the body, saying the data were included in Merck's 1998 application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to sell Vioxx. Cox-2 inhibitors were touted for causing less stomach upset than older painkillers.

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Extract

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Vioxx Scientist Denies Test Results Were Hidden ; Bomb Scare Disrupts Proceedings in Atlantic City Courtroom

But plaintiffs' attorney Mark Lanier, in a pointed cross- examination of Morrison, said Merck's new-drug applicatio...

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