Merck (MRK): More Trouble With Vioxx

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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R218533_855025A lot of people believe that Merck (MRK) knew a lot more about the dangers of its arthritis drug Vioxx than the company ever let on. Heart problems were apparently a by-product of using the treatment.

An affirmation of Merck’s possible guilt was the $4.85 billion that it paid to settle a number of Vioxx suits. But, the fun may not be over.

According to Reuters, "A long-term analysis of people who took the arthritis drug Vioxx confirms it doubles the risk of strokes and heart attacks." Merck will probably say it did not know much about that, but presumably it does road test its own drugs.

The suits over Vioxx seemed to be dying down. That is not going to continue.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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