Thankfully, not a new NBC drama by Dick Wolf:

Merck To Plead Guilty to Criminal Misdemeanor and Pay $950M Fine

Merck Sharp & Dohme will plead guilty to one count of misbranding Vioxx, the company and U.S. prosecutors said yesterday. The company will pay a $321.6 million criminal fine and $628.3 million to resolve civil claims that it sold Vioxx for unapproved uses and made false statements about its cardiovascular safety.

I guess the misdemeanor conviction means that Merck can still vote and own a gun!

I like the approach the FDA took of allowing faster approval of drugs. That way folks who want to be guinea pigs can. I'm reluctant to take anything, and particularly wary of anything that hasn't been on the market and in widespread use for at least a couple of decades.

__________________
Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

yes thanks GWB

Yet, the FDA pigs are forcing re-approval of older drugs, resulting in drugs being pulled from the market, because there's no profit in having a drug whose patents ran out long ago re-approved.

950 mil is pocket change to Big Pharma. They simply count it as the "cost of doing business" and go on to make the next trillion bux.

I've been nervous every since they quit selling Rorer 714.

__________________
Jim

Make the bastards pay. This is why I like tort law -- it does more to keep companies honest than any number of new laws. The problem isn't lack of laws, the problem is that the companies don't hurt from their own mischief. Bleed'em.

I had to look that one up. Not sold in the U.S. since 1982. So that's why nobody does 'ludes anymore.

Actually the speeding up of drug approval predates the shrub by several years. I read a book about the subject about a month ago and can't remember the title of it at the moment.

Edit: Here it is Amazon.com: Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs Are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies (9780618393138): Greg Critser: Books

__________________
Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

Capitalism NEEDS the risk/reward to be enforced. Make them pay.

__________________
1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags