Gilmartin: 'Vioxx could be back on the market'

Former Merck CEO Raymond Gilmartin told jurors that the drug company is "in discussions with the FDA as to whether or not and under what circumstances," Vioxx should be allowed back on the market, in testimony in the Ernst v. Merck case. In a videotaped deposition, Gilmartin told jurors that the company believed Vioxx was safe until researchers uncovered evidence linking the drug to cardiovascular events in 2004. That, of course, was essentially the script which the former executive, who left his job as CEO earlier this year under a cloud, was expected to follow. Critics have blamed Gilmartin for creating a corporate climate which encouraged employees to stress marketing over the company's tradition of sound science.

- see this story [1] from the San Jose Mercury News

PLUS: Pfizer says the SEC has asked it to turn over records relating to the painkillers Bextra and Celebrex. Story [2]