New York State Attorney General Andrew M Cuomo and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg have filed a lawsuit against Merck & Co Inc accusing the drugmaker of hiding risks posed by Vioxx and thereby defrauding Medicaid, the state supported insurance programme, of the moneys paid out for the prescriptions.
The lawsuit was filed in the state Supreme Court in Manhattan on Monday, said the New York Times.
Merck withdrew Vioxx in 2004 because it significantly increased the risk of heart attack and stroke. The drug was approved for the treatment of osteoarthritis, dysmenorrhea, rheumatoid arthritis, migraine headaches and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.
According to a statement released by Cuomo and Bloomberg:
“Merck’s own research found that patients who took Vioxx had five times the risk of having a heart attack compared to those taking naproxen, a similar drug”.
The lawsuit said that between them, the state’s Medicaid and Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage (EPIC) programmes have paid out more than 100 million dollars in prescriptions for Vioxx since 1999, when the drug became available.
A large part of the money was paid for patients who had pre-existing heart problems, and had Merck revealed the risks at the time, the money would not have been paid, it said.
The action papers state that before they stopped selling the drug, Merck carried out a “concerted and tenacious campaign of false and fraudulent statements” to tone down the strength of the link between Vioxx and heart problems. The campaign is said to have continued up to one month before the company stopped selling the drug.
Doctors in New York continued to prescribe Vioxx during this time. Had they been aware of the risks posed by Vioxx, they would not have done so, said the court papers.
According to news agency Reuters, this is the first action to be filed under New York State’s new False Claim Act. The Attorney General’s office said this gave the state powers to recover Medicaid and EPIC money paid out under false pretences. New York City has similar powers under its Administrative Code, said the agency.
Spokesman for the drug company, Kent Jarrell said Merck continued to monitor and carry out studies on the drug after it was launched on the market and they withdrew it, voluntarily, when they suspected there were problems. He said:
“We are confident that our behavior has been responsible.”
Other lawsuits have been filed against the company in other states, said Jarrell.
Cuomo said in a statement that the company’s “irresponsible and duplicitous conduct endangered the health of New Yorkers” and wasted the state’s tax dollars.
Even as the evidence of the drug’s risks was mounting, “Merck put profits above all else and put thousands at risk by continuing to push Vioxx inappropriately on doctors and patients,” he added.
And according to Reuters, legal action against the company has also been brought by insurance companies and health maintenance organizations (HMOs) “seeking to be reimbursed for their spending on the former 2.5 billion-dollar-a-year pill.”
So far, said the Associated Press (AP), Merck, whose headquarters are in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, have received 27,000 claims from Vioxx patients, of which over 1,000 have been thrown out and of the 15 that have reached the courtroom, Merck won 9 and lost 5, while another is to have a new trial.
Written by: Catharine Paddock