As no less a science authority than The New York Times recently breathlessly relayed (on November 4, 2009), Mr. Specter has written a book about "Firing Bullets of Data at Cozy Anti-Science". Uh-huh. Catchy.
Apparently, one of Mr. Specter's chapters is devoted to exposing poor pharma science (as a killer of what Specter tells us are "these good things"). That essay includes lamenting the "black eye" given to that noblest of compounds, rofecoxib, also known as. . . Vioxx -- its Merck-branded name:
. . . ."Denialism" makes good use of drugs. An opening chapter about the anti-inflammatory drug Vioxx describes the mess that resulted from efforts by Merck, the manufacturer of Vioxx, to obscure the fact that the medicine posed cardiovascular risk to some patients. This action led to Vioxx’s being removed from the market, even though many of its users, including a cardiologist who wound up being a whistleblower against Merck’s tactics, personally found Vioxx very helpful for treating his own arthritic knee. But the drug went out of circulation. Big Pharma ended up with a black eye. And "Denialism" got a case in point to illustrate why scientific advances made by drug companies can’t be trusted. . . .
Uh-huh. See ya' tomorrow evening, Mr. Specter.
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