Washington, DC – The District of Columbia and 29 other states have ended a three-year investigation into allegedly deceptive marketing of Merck’s pain reliever Vioxx. Merck will pay $58 million, $1.06 million of which will go to the District. A proposed consent judgment filed in DC Superior Court would require significant changes to Merck’s future marketing and promotion of drugs.

“Thanks in part to this settlement, we’re beginning a new era for drug marketing in the District and across the country,” said Interim Attorney General Peter J. Nickles. “Drug companies cannot deceive consumers into buying their products. If they do, there will be consequences.”

The District’s complaint against Merck alleges that when promoting Vioxx to health care professionals, and directly to consumers, the company misrepresented that the drug posed no greater cardiovascular risk than other drugs of its type.

The proposed consent judgment requires that before Merck may run a new “direct-to-consumer” (DTC) television advertising campaign regarding a drug, it must first submit the advertising to the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval.  Merck must then modify the advertising consistent with any comments received from the FDA.  In addition, Merck has agreed to a series of restrictions on potentially deceptive clinical study presentations. 

Some of the other practices to be restrained by the consent judgment are:

• Using scientific data in a misleading manner when marketing to doctors
• Using paid “ghost writers” to prepare scientific articles and studies
• Failing to adequately disclose conflicts of interest Merck promotional speakers may have when making             presentations at continuing medical education programs
• Allowing conflicts of interest among members of Merck-sponsored patient safety review boards.