Merck addresses allegations regarding Vioxx study
Merck responded to a story in the Annals of Internal Medicine with a two-page open letter, which is also posted to its Web site.
The story, published August 19, reported that a clinical study conducted by the drug maker was used primarily as part of a pre-launch for Vioxx, the future blockbuster painkiller that was later voluntarily withdrawn.
While Merck declined to discuss the company’s PR plans, a spokesman told PRWeek by e-mail that it did several embargoed media interviews in preparation for the story’s publication.
In other Merck marketing news, The New York Times took a long at the company’s marketing efforts around Gardasil. It writes: “The lightning-fast transition from newly minted vaccine to must-have injection in the United States and Europe represents a triumph of what the manufacturers call education and their critics call marketing.”
