Merck witness presents a lame defense in Vioxx trial

Dr. David Silver is a rheumatologist based in Los Angeles and has received research grants from Merck in the past. In addition to that he is a paid speaker for the company. So anything that he says should be believed with a lot of caution.

In fact there was no surprises in his testimony today. He basically regurgitated everything that Merck has been saying for years - that Vioxx was safe, that it did not kill anyone, and that everyone else who believes otherwise is an idiot.

And of course Dr. Silver relied only one FDA memo to make his point. Now it is no secret that the US FDA has been hijacked by the pharmaceutical industry and the Agency iself regurgitates what the drugmakers tell it to say. The panel that FDA constituted to evaluate the Cox-2 drugs actually was full of doctors who had serious conflicts of interest (many of them were paid by Merck and Pfizer).

He had also probably not read the latest study published in the British Medical Journal that all Cox-2 drugs including Vioxx were no better than the painkillers that you can buy for pennies in the supermarket.
Dr. Silver was testifying after the plaintiff's attorneys rested their case and Evelyn Irvin Plunkett, the wife of the deceased Richard "Dicky" Irvin, testified that he was a healthy man and had a job that required him to do a lot of physical work. They can only attribute his death to Vioxx.

Related article: World famous cardiologist blasts Merck