A medical statistics expert testifying in a Vioxx product liability trial in New Jersey said that Merck and Co. misrepresented the dangers of their product after a study showed that Vioxx users had five times more heart attacks than those taking the comparison drug naproxen. Richard Kronmal, a biostatistician with the University of Washington, analyzed Merck’s data from six different studies and said the data showed that Vioxx more than doubled the heart attack risk in the patients in the trials.

Pointing to one study done in 2000 in particular, Kronmal told jurors in the trial that of the 28 participants in the study who suffered congestive heart failure, which is a decline in the heart’s pumping ability, 19 were taking Vioxx. 15 of those participants needed to be hospitalized. Of those 15, 12 were on Vioxx.

Kronmal was testifying on behalf of postal worker Frederick “Mike” Humeston, 60, of Boise, ID, who suffered a heart attack in September of 2001 while taking Vioxx. Merck and Co. faces over 5000 personal injury lawsuits over Vioxx, 2475 of which have consolidated in New Jersey.

Source: John Curran, “Medical statistics expert: Vioxx can double heart attack risk,” Associated Press, September 22, 2005.