Medical whistleblowers speak out

Public release date: 27-May-2005

Contact: Paul Ocampo
press@plos.org
+1-415-624-1224
Public Library of Science

FDA official says agency was 'single greatest obstacle to doing anything effective' about Vioxx

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was "the single greatest obstacle to doing anything effective" about Vioxx, said FDA drug safety officer David Graham at an unprecedented roundtable of medical whistleblowers sponsored by the Public Library of Science (PLoS) and the Government Accountability Project.

In comments that echoed his now infamous testimony to the US Senate Finance Committee, Graham said that, "Nearly 60,000 people probably died from that drug. That's as many of our soldiers that were killed in the Vietnam war [who] died as a result of Vioxx use. And FDA had the opportunity, the responsibility, to stop that and didn't."