Vioxx Hysteria?

And so, the litigation hounds once again are unleashed on the prescription drug community. This time it is over Vioxx, an anti-arthitic drug manufactured by Merck. Research has long pointed to the fact that long-term use of Vioxx may contribute to heart attacks and strokes. Perhaps the FDA didn\’t study the drug long enough. Perhaps the pharmaceutical companies are only interested in money. Perhaps people don\’t read the warning labels. And perhaps some were willing to risk the trade-off in order to get relief from their pain symptoms.

Regardless, in what is the biggest recall in prescription drug history ($2.5 billion), Vioxx is no longer available on the market. And now everywhere you turn, malpractice attorneys are planning on sticking it to the doctors who prescribed the medication, as well as the pharmaceutical company that manafactured it (Merck is taking a huge hit on Wall Street).

And people wonder why health insurance costs are skyrocketing.