Painful Withdrawal for Merck, Maker of Vioxx

From the washingtonpost.com (free registration required).

"...On Sept. 30, the company would take the dramatic step of withdrawing the drug, sending the price of its stock into a steep slide that wiped out a quarter of the company's value, a slide from which it has not yet recovered.

An examination of how and why Merck reacted offers an unusual look at how safety issues are handled in clinical trials once a drug is on the market and the complex business of weighing risks against benefits. Even as Merck was deciding to withdraw the drug, there were medical experts arguing that it should not. It also shows that federal regulators often rely on drug companies to tell them that a product is dangerous.

The whole saga, industry experts said, raises unsettling questions about aggressive consumer marketing of drugs before their long-term safety has been proven…"