Vioxx killed Robert Ernst, according to cardiologist
Did Vioxx kill Robert Ernst, whose widow Carol Ernst has decided to take on Merck, in the first ever Vioxx lawsuit to go on trial. According to AP, when asked by plaintiff’s lawyer Mark Lanier if he believed Vioxx was a significant contributing factor in Robert Ernst’s 2001 heart attack or sudden cardiac death, Dr. Isaac Wiener replied, “I would call it sudden cardiac death and I would answer yes.”
While Merck, which intimidated and discredited any one who criticized Vioxx or even questioned its safety, will try to attack Dr. Wiener, but he is no ordinary doctor. He is actually the co-director of Cardiac Arrhythmia Center at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. It is important to note that Robert Ernst died due to arrhythemia, and not a heart attack, and Merck has been arguing that Vioxx was therefore not responsible for his death. Testimony from Dr. Wiener attacks the fundamental argument of Merck lawyers.
In the meantime, another controversy involving Dr. M. Thomas Stillman (a doctor at University of Minnesota) is evolving. When he discussed some of the dangers or Vioxx in 1999, according to Jeremy Olson of St. Paul Pioneer Press, Merck abruptly cancelled a series of lectures by him that it was sponsoring. In Merck internal emails now made available, Merck declared another Vioxx critic as a “vocal adversary.” And interestingly enough, there was another common link in this story – Louis Sherwood, a vice president at Merck at that time. Sherwood is accused of destroying the promotion prospects of a Harvard professor, Lee Simon, who also criticized Vioxx.
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