Published 6 August 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.40024.494213.4D
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b3155

Feature

Drug Safety

Battle over popular bone drug Fosamax bursts into court

Ray Moynihan, visiting editor, BMJ

1 Melbourne, Australia

Ray.Moynihan@newcastle.edu.au

A New York judge has revealed internal Merck discussions about a possible link between its widely prescribed drug and dead jaw syndrome, finds Ray Moynihan

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A spring evening back in May 1996 was something of a high point for the folks at the global drug company Merck. Three American television networks ran news stories celebrating Merck’s latest blockbuster to fight brittle bones—Fosamax, whose generic name is alendronic acid (or alendronate sodium).

Reporters told tens of millions of viewers that the recently approved drug could cut the risk of a hip fracture in half, and one report described this as "almost miraculous."1The televangelism proved both efficacious and prophetic: in the years since, the drug became one of Merck’s top selling products, with sales in excess of $3bn (£1.8bn; {euro}2.1bn) annually for several years during the past decade.

Next week, in a district court room not too far away from those same network studios, Merck is scheduled to face the first trial involving its golden goose alendronic acid before Judge John Keenan of the southern district . . . [Full text of this article]


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