Merck says drug study not a marketing ploy

NEW YORK, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- A new study asserts that a 1999 Vioxx clinical drug trial sponsored by Merck & Co. was done to support a marketing campaign, U.S. researchers said.

"You hear people talk about it, but I've never seen anyone ... formally admit to it," Arthur Caplan, a University of Pennsylvania bioethicist told The Wall Street Journal Tuesday.

The 1999 drug study included roughly 5,500 patients, the Journal reported.

The new study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, includes quotes of Merck documents. One says the drug trial "was designed and executed in the spirit of Merck marketing principles," the Journal reported.

The authors, including lead author Kevin Hill, a psychiatrist from McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., are paid consultants working for lawyers who are suing Merck over Vioxx, linked to increased risks of heart attacks and stroke.

Hill said patients in drug trials, "need to know what they're risking their health for."

The company, finalizing a $4.85 billion class action Vioxx settlement, denied their study was a marketing ploy.

"This is a trial that had good, scientific merit and was judged by the editors of the Annals when they accepted it for publication," Jonathan Edelman of Merck Research Laboratories told the Journal.