Merck actions in hiding data may result in mistrial

As jurors deliberate in Houston in the lawsuit filed in the death of Richard "Dicky" Irvin, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the plaintiff's attorney has already filed for a mistrial. Chris Seeger, the attorney for Frederick "Mike" Humeston, who lost his case, is quoted by CNN as saying that he too will file for a retrial.

These new developments are a result of an editorial published by the New England Journal of Medicine that Merck did not include all the data related to death from Vioxx in the VIGOR trial. In a very harsh criticism of the company, the editors say that were those deaths included, Vioxx would emerge out to be even deadlier than it is currently believed.

As expected, Merck is defending its actions though the stock market was clearly not pleased with the news. Merck stock continues to sink. Alise Reicin, who has been a vocal defendant of the drug and has testified in all the trials so far, is one of the co-authors of the paper published in the Journal. The scientific community uses the term "scientific misconduct" to describe such behavior.

In an article in Forbes, Garret FitzGerald, an expert at the University of Pennsylvania, calls Merck's actions "extraordinarily stupid."

While many of Merck's actions in hiding the risks of Vioxx may not have been illegal, but the fact that it did all it could cover up the risks definitely helps the case of Vioxx victims who have been saying that Merck knew the dangers of the painkiller and it deliberately kept them in the dark. It is highly likely that Vioxx litigation will get even more complicated due to this development making it difficult for the company to defend itself in the rapidly growing number of lawsuits.