http://www.upi.com/HealthBusiness/view.php?StoryID=20051208-034915-2184r WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- A leading medical journal said Thursday it has retracted a key study that Merck has relied on in its Vioxx defense.
In making the retraction, the New England Journal of Medicine said data from the 2000 VIGOR study -- funded by Merck -- may have been skewed by its authors, according to a report Thursday on CNBC.
In an "expression of concern" on NEJM's Web site, the journal claimed the VIGOR study omitted three incidents of heart attack from the data sent to NEJM for publication.
NEJM further charges that the study's authors knew of the three additional cardiac events before the study was submitted to the journal for publication and had ample time to make revisions.