merck co

US drugs firm Merck & Co agrees to pay almost $1bn to settle charges arising from the marketing of one of its drugs, Vioxx, the US Department of Justice says.

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We just discussed how leaders of big health care corporations with histories of ethical and legal missteps want to export our supposedly "wonderful technology, wonderful approaches" to the rest of the world.  A story on the Huffington Post showed how big health care corporations, partnering with the US government, have already been doing that with not very pretty results

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Drugmaker Merck & Co. said Tuesday that arbitration will begin in late September in its dispute with Johnson & Johnson over revenue from two blockbuster drugs for rheumatoid arthritis and other immune disorders....

TRENTON, N.J. -- Merck & Co. said Tuesday its schizophrenia drug Saphris has been approved for two additional uses by the Food and Drug Administration.

All the shenanigans that went on in the course of Merck's marketing of the now withdrawn Cox-2 inhibitor non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug Vioxx have provided grist for the Health Care Renewal mill since 2005.  For example, see these posts:

- here about ghost-writing of a Vioxx research publication;

(Wellcome Trust) The Wellcome Trust and Merck & Co. Inc. today announced the creation of the MSD Wellcome Trust Hilleman Laboratories, the first of its kind research and development joint venture with a not-for-profit mission to focus on developing affordable vaccines to prevent diseases that commonly affect low-income countries.

Two studies by federal and academic researchers have found low rates of side effects with the blockbuster cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil, but a total of 32 deaths - and questionable promotion tactics by maker Merck & Co....

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Merck & Co. has halted a study of an experimental drug it had touted as key to energizing its sagging cholesterol franchise, barely three weeks after U.S. regulators refused to allow sales of the drug....

In "P for Poor Management" and "Tax Break Used by Drug Makers Failed to Add Jobs" I postulated that many of pharma's difficulties stem from understaffing, poor morale and overwork caused by the abandonment of the idea of employees as valuable partners - as opposed to "expendible assets."