Note from Health Lover, Ilena Rosenthal:
http://ilenarose.blogspot.com
Health Lover
This case has such huge implications ... will be important to watch.
Merck has layers of media promoters here on Usenet.
www.BreastImplantAwareness.org/snake-oil.htm
http://www.naturalnews.com/022653.html
NaturalNews) The city and state of New York have filed a joint lawsuit
against Merck & Company for deliberately concealing the dangers of its
painkiller Vioxx, thereby defrauding public health programs out of
millions of dollars in prescription costs.
"Merck's irresponsible and duplicitous conduct endangered the health
of New Yorkers and wasted our tax dollars," said New York Attorney
General Andrew M. Cuomo. "Even as evidence was piling up showing just
how dangerous this drug was, Merck put profits above all else."
The New York Supreme Court will decide whether Merck defrauded New
York's Medicaid and Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance programs. The
plaintiffs say that if doctors had known the risks posed by Vioxx,
they never would have prescribed the drug, and state agencies would
never have paid out $100 million to Merck for the product. They are
asking the court to force Merck to pay back all of that money.
New York is the seventh state to file such a lawsuit against the
company, following Alaska, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Utah and
Texas. More than 25,000 lawsuits have been brought against the company
to date for its alleged malfeasance in covering up the dangers of
Vioxx.
From 1999 to 2004, Vioxx was widely prescribed as a painkiller for
arthritis and migraines. When it was revealed that the drug
significantly increased patients' risks of heart attacks and strokes,
however, Vioxx was pulled from the market.
Lawyers for the company promised that they were "vigorously defending"
the case, and denied any wrongdoing on the part of their clients. "We
are confident that our behavior has been responsible," said Kent
Jarrell, a spokesperson for Merck's lawyers.
The city of New York also has a lawsuit pending in federal court
against 44 pharmaceutical companies including Merck. In that lawsuit,
the city has alleged that the companies artificially inflated the
prices of their products, thereby defrauding the city's Medicaid
program.
"The pharmaceutical industry routinely engages in fraudulent business
practices," said consumer health advocate Mike Adams. "With Big
Pharma, fraud is not the exception; it's the way business is routinely
conducted. And yet, despite the outrageously illegal and unethical
business practices pursued by these companies, it is worth noting that
they manage to pay their way out of any criminal judgments and thereby
maintain a clean legal record that allows them to continue doing
business with state and federal governments," Adams said.
###
http://www.naturalnews.com/022653.html
Note from Health Lover, Ilena Rosenthal:
http://ilenarose.blogspot.com
Health Lover
This case has such huge implications ... will be important to watch.
Merck has layers of media promoters here on
Usenet.www.BreastImplantAwareness.org/snake-oil.htm
http://www.naturalnews.com/022653.html
NaturalNews) The city and state of New York have filed a joint lawsuit
against Merck & Company for deliberately concealing the dangers of its
painkiller Vioxx, thereby defrauding public health programs out of
millions of dollars in prescription costs.
"Merck's irresponsible and duplicitous conduct endangered the health
of New Yorkers and wasted our tax dollars," said New York Attorney
General Andrew M. Cuomo. "
)