[Ip-health] NYT: Doctor who testifies against Merck is demoted at Cleveland Clinic's Medical College

[James Love]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/10/business/10vioxx.html

* Less than a week after his videotaped lambasting of Merck was
played in a Houston federal courthouse, Dr. Eric Topol, a prominent
cardiologist, has lost his title as chief academic officer of the
Cleveland Clinic's medical college.

*  Dr. Topol said yesterday that he believed that his demotion might
be related to his testimony in that case, the third Vioxx lawsuit to
reach trial. Dr. Topol has questioned Vioxx's safety for years and
said in his testimony, played in court last Saturday, that he
believed that Merck acted irresponsibly and committed scientific
misconduct when it promoted Vioxx.

*  "The hardest thing in the world is just trying to tell the truth,
to do the right thing for patients, and you get vilified," he said
yesterday. "No wonder nobody stands up to the industry."

*  Eileen Sheil, a spokeswoman for the clinic, said that Dr. Topol
was not being punished for his Vioxx testimony. Dr. Topol lost his
title as part of a broader administrative reorganization, Ms. Sheil
said.  "The organization made the decision that that position was no
longer needed," she said.


Doctor Links Merck Trial to His Demotion
By ALEX BERENSON
Published: December 10, 2005

Less than a week after his videotaped lambasting of Merck was played
in a Houston federal courthouse, Dr. Eric Topol, a prominent
cardiologist, has lost his title as chief academic officer of the
Cleveland Clinic's medical college.

In the courthouse yesterday, jurors continued deliberating whether
Merck's painkiller Vioxx had caused the death of a Florida main in 2001.

Dr. Topol said yesterday that he believed that his demotion might be
related to his testimony in that case, the third Vioxx lawsuit to
reach trial. Dr. Topol has questioned Vioxx's safety for years and
said in his testimony, played in court last Saturday, that he
believed that Merck acted irresponsibly and committed scientific
misconduct when it promoted Vioxx.

"The hardest thing in the world is just trying to tell the truth, to
do the right thing for patients, and you get vilified," he said
yesterday. "No wonder nobody stands up to the industry."

Dr. Topol will remain the chief of cardiology at the clinic, a
prestigious nonprofit health system with almost $4 billion in annual
revenue, and the loss of his title as chief academic officer does not
affect his salary. But he will lose his position on the clinic's
governing board. His job change was first reported yesterday by The
Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Dr. Topol did not offer specific evidence to back his allegation.

Eileen Sheil, a spokeswoman for the clinic, said that Dr. Topol was
not being punished for his Vioxx testimony. Dr. Topol lost his title
as part of a broader administrative reorganization, Ms. Sheil said.

"The organization made the decision that that position was no longer
needed," she said.

The nine members of the Houston jury planned to begin a third day of
deliberations today. The lawsuit was brought by the family of Richard
Irvin, who died in 2001 of a heart attack after taking Vioxx for
about a month. The case is the first Vioxx lawsuit in federal court,
after trials in state courts in Texas, where Merck lost, and New
Jersey, where Merck won.

Yesterday, lawyers for Mr. Irvin's family asked Judge Eldon E. Fallon
to declare a mistrial, claiming that Merck improperly withheld
information from an article that was published in The New England
Journal of Medicine in November 2000. On Thursday, the journal wrote
that Merck had undercounted the number of heart attacks suffered by
patients in a study of Vioxx to play down the drug's heart risks.
Judge Fallon did not rule on the motion for a mistrial.

Merck stopped selling Vioxx, a once-popular painkiller, last year,
after a study of the drug showed that it increased the risk of heart
attacks and strokes.

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James Love, CPTech / www.cptech.org / mailto:james.love@cptech.org /
tel. +1.202.332.2670 / mobile +1.202.361.3040