Vioxx and Merck & Co. Essay

The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most powerful and greedy industries in our country, with a goal to make as large a profit as possible, at the expense of the sick.

Sweeping the nation on a mass caliber is the opioid crisis. Stories have been depicted by every news channel across the nation on the crisis that has destroyed countless individuals lives. According Alanna Semuels's article, "Are Pharmaceutical Companies to Blame for the Opioid Epidemic?", she reports the fault of the calamity. Semuels points out that the perpetrator of this utterly horrendous plague is the doctors who have over-prescribed medication, as well as the pharmaceutical industry. This crisis has been slowly evolving over the past decades but is only now making its way into the mainstream media headlines. The pharmaceutical industry has been steadily infiltrated its' way into all arrangements of healthcare in the sole pursuit of gaining

Dr. David Graham is the senior scientist within the FDA’s Office of Drug Safety. Graham became concerned when he started to see an increased number of patients having heart attacks and strokes after taking a large does of the drug Vioxx, back in 2002. He raised his concern to the FDA saying that the warning label needs to be changed due to his new findings. He had trouble getting this any attention from the FDA’s administration and decided it was time to ‘blow the whistle’ and go to the media.

Issues have recently started developing around the drug since just a few years after it was put onto the market. Hundreds of people have died from taking the drug for the

In fact, there was thought to be more of a need for them. Before the last two decades, opioids were used for cancer related or acute pain. However, in the 1990s chronic non cancer patients got attention because people nationally felt there was a shortage in patients receiving opioids, thus making them deprived of adequate pain management. Because of this, clinicians were encouraged to treat chronic non-cancer pain and patients in hospice care more often than they were used to. It was also encouraged to use high doses of opioids for long periods of time (Cheatle). The idea that providers seemed overly cautious about these medications caused a large increase in opioid prescriptions from health care providers. Threat of tort and litigation for some doctors that were deemed for not prescribing enough to alleviate pain of patients was also a concern for doctors This quickly turned a shortage of prescription opioids into a national prescription opioid abuse epidemic in under twenty years. From 1999 to 2010, the amount of prescription opioids sold to hospitals, pharmacies, and doctors offices quadrupled, and three times the number of people overdosed on painkillers in this time (Garcia). While some patients have benefitted from the increased sales and loose guidelines of prescription opioid analgesics, the increasing in opioid misuse, abuse, and overdose is truly daunting. As a nation, we need to back track, and

In February of this year, OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma announced that it would no longer be marketing its painkillers to doctors. The company alerted its employees that it will get rid of half of its sales force and send a letter to doctors this week notifying them that salespeople will no longer be going to clinics to market their opioid products. The opioid crisis began with the release of

While, CURES helps to identify red flags, there are no guidelines for pharmacists to ultimately make the final decision to fill an opioid prescription or not. CVS though, is making substantial changes to its pharmacy program. If a patient has a prescription for several weeks’ worth of an opioid and wants to fill that prescription for more than seven days, pre-authorization will be required and the drugs will have to be paid for out of pocket. CVS pharmacists will begin providing patients with thorough explanations as to why some of their opioid prescriptions won’t be filled. They will also be sure to counsel patients on the dangers of opioid dependence and addiction. As mentioned in Time, Dr. Steve Stanos, president of The American Academy

Opiates, otherwise known as prescription painkillers, have become an enormous problem in the United States. Addiction, overdoses, and death are only a few of the problems caused by opiates. Painkillers can be prescribed to help lessen chronic pain, pain from surgery, pain from serious accidents, or pain from terminal diseases. Opiates are highly addicting and have become highly abused in the United States in the past few years. Prescription painkillers need to be banned in the United States because of the dangers they bring to the patients to whom they are being prescribed. The FDA needs to become more involved in the awareness of how dangerous these drugs are and place a ban on them.

“Amid Opioid Crisis, Insurers Restrict Pricey, Less Addictive Painkillers” by Katie Thomas & Charles Ornstein

Last year, in September 2004, Merck withdrawed Vioxx, off the market. Studies of Vioxx showed that it doubled the risk of a heart attack or stroke for patients who have used it more than 18 months. After Merck, withdrawed Vioxx from the market, the FDA, issued a public health advisory for the users of Vioxx. Therefore, Vioxx was on the market for five years without

While some have identified Merck as a visionary company dedicated to a "core values and a sense of purpose beyond just making money" (Collins & Porras, 2002, p. 48), others point out corporate misdeeds perpetrated by Merck (e.g., its role in establishing a dubious medical journal that republished articles favorable to Merck products) as contradictory

Merck is a drug manufacture giant who brings an annual revenue of nearly fifty billion. Prior the Vioxx recall Merck was a highly valued company when it came to its ethical standard. It had consistently toped list for companies to work for (Lawrence & Weber, 2014). In addition to this they were well recognized as a socially responsible company who placed an importance on testing to provide the best quality pharmaceuticals. The Vioxx recall caused a huge blow for the company resulting in lawsuits and drop in company value.

Antibiotics have played a major role in our society thanks to Sir Alexander Fleming's careful observations in 1928. Without it, many lives would be in danger due to infectious diseases. Antibiotics are chemical substances produced by various species of microorganisms and other living systems that are capable in small concentrations of inhibiting the growth of or killing bacteria and other microorganisms. These organisms can be bacteria, viruses, fungi, or animals called protozoa. A particular group of these agents is made up of drugs called antibiotics, from the Greek word anti ("against") and bios ("life").

In 2012, a worldwide pharmaceutical company, Endo Pharmaceuticals, ended the sale of one of their top selling painkillers, Opana ER. The sale halted because they discovered that drug abusers started pulverizing and snorting the narcotic. However, before the sale of Opana ER ended, Endo started selling a drug they thought was harder for people to abuse because it had a hard coating; this was not true because drug abusers started boiling the “crush-resistant” Opana ER and then injected the drug. In June 2017, the FDA stated that the risks of the crush-resistant version of Opana was much larger than the benefits and pressured Endo to stop selling the narcotic. Endo stopped the selling of Opana ER on September 1, but they started selling a generic

Turnaround Strategy : Merck’s research and development has not always resulted in products that provide value to consumers. Vioxx was taken off the market in 2004 when people became sick and died after taking the drug. The company’s reputation suffered after allegations that Merck asked doctors to sign Merck-written research studies for Vioxx. Merck disputes the allegation, but more than 9,200 lawsuits were filed against the company. Vioxx had generated $2.5 billion in annual sales.