Vioxx recall deaths responsibility lies with doctors too

According to some recent estimates, the total number of Americans killed by Vioxx may be as high as between 88,000 and 139,000. Of course, the responsibility for these deaths should lie with Merck and the FDA. But what about doctors who prescribed these medicines to the patients? It is indeed true that American doctors don't always do their jobs professionally for the following reasons:

• Doctors do not keep up with latest information on drugs and scientific research. No wonder then that their sources of latest information are sales people of drug companies or seminars offered by drug companies at retreats sponsored by drug companies.
• Many doctors (particularly the famous ones) write supposedly academic papers that are paid for by drug companies. The drug companies provide the funds for research and if the findings are favorable to the sponsor, the research is published in medical journals and used by the drugmaker for marketing purposes. If the result in unfavorable, as the terms of the grant provided, the research is classified as secret and is never made public.
• Some doctors work as consultants for drugmakers and then try to make favorable arguments (in academic journals or at conferences) for their client without disclosing that they are being paid to make those claims. In the case of Vioxx, an army of doctors (working as consultants to Merck) organized a campaign to support Merck's position in medical journals, as documented by EJ Topol writing in the New England Journal of Medicine. He continues, "The company sponsored countless continuing medical "education" symposiums at national meetings in an effort to debunk the concern about adverse cardiovascular effects (of Vioxx)."
• While some responsibility lies with consumers who believe direct-to-consumer advertising by drugmakers, but it is a doctor's responsibility (being the professional) to not prescribe a drug even if the patient insists if it is not in her/his best interest. What is happening is that naive consumers believe the marketing BS of drug companies and then, as the advertisements exhort them to do, they go ask their doctor about it. Rather than questioning, the doctors simply prescribe what will make their patients happy, shut up, and leave. This is exactly what happened in the case of Vioxx for which Merck spent approximately half-a-billion dollars on advertising.

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