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Merck, the Fda, and the Vioxx Recall

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Do you believe that Merck acted in a socially responsible and ethical manner with regard to Vioxx? Why or why not? In your answer, please address the company’s drug development and testing, marketing and advertising, relationships with government regulators and policymakers, and handling of the recall.
No, Merck didn’t act in a corporate social responsibility in regards to Vioxx. Corporate social responsibility means that a corporation should act in a way that enhances society and its inhabitants and be held accountable for any of its actions that affect people, their communities, and their environment.
Over a five year period from 1999 to 2004 over 139,000 people in the United States has had a heart attack or stroke as a result of taking Vioxx about 55,000 of them died.
When a business is ranked on being highly successful they are mostly being ranked on profit not the amount of people they helped or cured. The pharmaceutical giant Merck that manufactured Vioxx was ranked number three of the world’s top pharmaceutical companies with sales of $30.78 billion dollars and profits of $7.8 billion.
In the eight-page letter, the FDA says Merck engaged "in a promotional campaign for Vioxx that minimizes the potentially serious cardiovascular findings that were observed" in a clinical trial comparing Vioxx to naproxen, a less-expensive painkiller. "Your promotional campaign discounts the fact" that in the trial, "patients on Vioxx were observed to have a four to five-fold increase" in heart attacks, compared with patients on naproxen, the letter said (Martinez, 2004)

After re-analyzing the relevant data, including those from Merck, FDA Scientist Dr David Graham estimated in early 2005 that "between 89,000 and 139,000 people had been seriously affected by the drug (Vioxx) ( Jack, 2005)." Merck now faces costly lawsuits, angry investors and falling profits ( Simmons

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