The MerckLinks Company’s Launch of the Vioxx Product

Analyze the Vioxx case in the context of MerckLinks.

MerckLinks is a major pharmaceutical company. The patents of Fosamax and Zocor expired in 2006. Merck had planned Vioxx to be its next Blockbuster drug. What might Merck have done when information came out that Vioxx caused Cardiovascular problems? Was it ethical for Merck to withdraw sponsorship of researchers who took issue with Merck’s marketing of Vioxx? And was it a good strategy? Compare Merck’s actions in influencing reported research results on Vioxx to the strategy of the tobacco companies in the 1950s, as they countered research that established a link between smoking and cancer.