Vioxx short-term risk not seen in other data: lawyer

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A lawyer who represents Merck & Co. in its litigation over Vioxx said on Tuesday that an unpublished study that reportedly shows heart risks with the withdrawn painkiller in short-term use is not supported by other data.

Merck withdrew Vioxx from the market in September 2004 after a study showed the one-time $2.5 billion-a-year drug doubled the risk of heart problems after 18 months of use. The company has since argued in trials that there is no evidence that short-term use increased heart risks.

But a new study approved for publication in the New England Journal of Medicine says half of patients who experienced cardiovascular events did so within 12 months, the Wall Street Journal reported. Risk of heart attack and stroke went away within 14 days after patients stopped taking the drug, according to the report.

Ted Mayer, outside counsel for Merck in the Vioxx litigation, said, "We will wait until publication of the study before going into detail about what the data show or do not show."

"The reported findings with respect to confirmed thrombotic events in short-term use are not supported by the data found in the other available large placebo studies with Vioxx," Mayer said in a statement.

A spokeswoman for the New England Journal of Medicine said she could not confirm or deny that it is publishing any study.

Merck shares were about 0.6 percent higher in midday trading.

The new study, known as Victor, was conducted by researchers at Oxford University in England, the Journal said.

Kent Jarrell, a spokesman for Merck's litigation team, said the preliminary data already had been presented in October 2006 at the annual conference of the National Cancer Research Institute.