Analysis Of Merck Vioxx Failure Case

Vioxx was introduced by Merck & Co. , on 1999 in United State of America. Due to Merck & Co. , aggressive promotion at that time it was really famous not only in US but also in other 80 countries. Within 4 year its worldwide sale was 2. 5 billion, moreover it was known as tremendous placebo because instantly it relieves the pain. Although it was great concoction of Merck & Co. , eventually they were forced to withdraw all the medicine form the market on September 30, 2004 due to some serious flaws.

Firstly Merck & Co. , underestimated the complexity of the product, as it is concern about human health they must take serious caution by more research work before releasing the medicine. Human cardiovascular event such as heart attack, stroke was seriously affected after using Vioxx (minimum 18 months from the beginning of use).

Furthermore Vioxx drastic failure was also happened because of poor forecasting and improper planning. Merck & Co. , reckon that “it is a great medicine and they can sell the medicine within the market if they promote vigorously”. Initially they were successful because they made a lot of profit from it, however after few years everything got waste. If they made a proper plan to foresee the future then this situation might had not be arisen. Secondly, customer was not satisfied with the product. Customer got heart attack, stroke by using the Vioxx in a long term basis. It happened because Merck did not concerned about the end user satisfaction (especially the long term satisfaction), they just want to make business immediately for which they also got legal claims from over 30, 000 people. Besides claims Merk also got a warning letter from FDA for promotional campaign of Vioxx “Misleading and False information” is the key point for getting warning letter. Later on September 30, 2004 FDA officially announced the serious side effect of this medicine to people and also informed their physicians to seek alternative medicine immediately.

Finally, underestimated the data/study of VIGOR (VIOXX Gastrointestinal Outcomes Research), the VIGOR study released (on March 2000) that there was a high risk of cardiovascular events of VIOXX compared to another pain killer while using the medicine for long term. However Merck & Co. did not give importance of the VIGOR study in that time. As a consequence they got claims. Eventually they settle the case in the court for US$950-million that was not so drastic when claims compared with their total sell (around 2. 5 billions).