There weren't any approved studies showing that this drug was safe and effective for RA sufferers, yet Merck marketed it to their doctors anyway.

It's just really bad medicine.

Last edited Mon Jun 9, 2014, 08:51 AM - Edit history (1)

"Woo-ness" isn't determined by whether or not a treatment works; it's determined by whether or not the advocates & users of a product/procedure claim that it works according to magical or psedoscientific means.

If Merck engaged in fraud, it should certainly face criminal penalties. If a proponent of woo engages in fraud, then that proponent should certainly face criminal penalties as well.

Why do you believe that this case is woo, other than because it bolsters your faith in pseudoscience and your distrust/misunderstanding of actual science and medicine?

the treatment has been proven with repeated scientific studies to work.

There were no approved scientific studies on the use of VIOXX for RA patients. Its use was as much "woo" as any unproven treatment.

If an assertion is consistent with and does not contradict established science but is ultimately shown to be incorrect, then the asserton can be wrong and it can be fraudulent, but it need not be woo.

I don't know why you're arguing this point, either, because even if we accept your notion, you're simply linking woo-in-general to the criminally bad of a particular company. Why would you seek such an alliance?


Incidentally, were the negative side effect of Vioxx identified through science or through woo? Can you point to even one instance when pseudoscience was used to show that some other kind of pseudoscience was shown to be fraudulent?

I would be interested to read your complaints about such pseudoscience as the "supplement" industry or "therapeutic touch" and similar forms of "energy" healing.

That is, I don't recall ever seeing you come out against any of those forms of woo; instead, you focus your attention on the occasional bad practice of actual science or actual medicine.

Your consistency in this regard suggests, even if you're not a woo supporter, you are curiously specific in selecting your targets.

Remember before Ronald Regan, when the FDA did it's own drug testing and did not depend on data from the drug manufacturers ?

... "medical science" said this drug was safe. Nothing to see here.

Obviously it wasn't safe, but the reason for the recall was that it contributed to heart problems.

...would be, if anyone were surprised.

- K&R

FDA lets drugs approved on fraudulent research stay on market

FDA's own figures.

Opiates, cannabis, any other number of drugs would have been less dangerous.

But OH NO! Effective drugs with less dangerous side effects are EVIL!

The perfect Pharmaceutical company pain killer would kill the pain but it would never let you forget you were still broken person, maybe it would put a big scarlet D for "druggie" on your face because that's some vengeful puritanical god's plan or something.

Our society is sick, and there are too many profiting from this sickness. Corporations (Merck) and institutions (the DEA) will lie, cheat, and steal to keep those drug profits flowing.