Merck's Heart-Stopping PR in Australia

by Diane Farsetta — May 1, 2009 - 3:24pm
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In Australia, the pharmaceutical company Merck is on trial. Australians who took the pain medication Vioxx allege that Merck and its Australian subsidiary, Merck Sharp & Dohme, "knew Vioxx increased the risk of heart attacks long before it voluntarily withdrew the drug from the market in 2004." Merck has paid $4.85 billion to U.S. Vioxx patients, but never admitted liability. As the Australian trial proceeds, Merck's public relations people from the Kreab & Gavin Anderson firm "follow journalists out of court, ask them what they are writing, hand out daily press releases and send 'background' emails they say should not be attributed to the company but which detail what they think are the 'salient points' from the evidence presented in court." The firm also phones reporters who write critical articles, to accuse "them of 'cherry-picking' the evidence and bombards newspapers with letters to the editor ... five were sent to The Australian in just seven days." Merck's Australian PR team, along with U.S. Merck spokeswoman Casey Stavropoulos, attends each day of the trial. The PR team sit near journalists covering the case, at one point even "looking over the shoulders of journalists at their notepads."

Main Source: 
The Australian, April 24, 2009

Comments

Re: Vioxx scandal

Submitted by MaryClare (not verified) on June 1, 2009 - 12:53am.

Here in CO, Merck persuaded several women legislators to ante up $100 to join 'Women in Gov't', a transparent shell designed to grease legislation favoring vaccines developed by Merck, such as Gardasil. Parent advocates and doctors who treat vaccine-damaged children among them, gave compelling testimony to kill a bill which would have mandated Gardasil. $1.5 million was taken from a successful detection and treatment program which utilized pap smears and cervical screenings, and instead allocated to a state 'health' dept fund to promote Gardasil. Unbelievable!! The Univ of CO also had sued Merck for patent infringment, and the IRS had ruled against Merck for hiding profits in offshore accounts. Unfortunately Gardasil will not be removed from market by the FDA, who has former drug reps/lobbyisits on its advisory board, until several thousand more girls die from this neuro-toxic and carcinogenic vaccine. Over 40 girls have died and over 11,000 adverse events have been reported to VAERS. This is just the tip of the iceberg in that less than 10% of vaccine reactions are reported. Check out www.nvic.org for more info.