A Texas appeals court on Wednesday overturned a multimillion-dollar verdict against Merck & Co. in one of the few trials it lost over its withdrawn painkiller Vioxx.
A government researcher said Monday that experimental blood substitutes are linked to an increased risk of heart attack and death, and suggested that studies on people should be halted.
A large study offers the strongest evidence yet that a diet the government recommends for lowering blood pressure can save people from heart attack and stroke
Brian Connell felt the first pains of a heart attack while shoveling snow a year ago. But he was only 38, so he shrugged it off.
How's your cholesterol? Here's a guess: If you're healthy, you probably have no idea. New surveys show women tend to be clueless about their risks of heart disease, especially when it comes to managing their cholesterol.
Anger, depression and stress can all raise the risk of heart disease -- but a new study shows that chronic anxiety may be even more harmful
Jeopardy host Alex Trebek was hospitalized Tuesday after suffering a minor heart attack.
Merck & Co. announced Friday that it will pay $4.85 billion to settle as claims by as many as 47,000 groups of plaintiffs over injuries linked to its blockbuster Vioxx painkiller.
Eli Lilly revealed positive findings from a late-stage trial of its experimental heart drug prasugrel, but a side effect might prevent it from becoming the potential blockbuster that the company had hoped.
Studies show that chronic stress contributes to heart attacks and other disease, and researchers think it's time to make stress reduction a medical priority
A Texas appeals court on Wednesday overturned a multimillion-dollar verdict against Merck & Co. in one of the few trials it lost over its withdrawn painkiller Vioxx.
A government researcher said Monday that experimental blood substitutes are linked to an increased risk of heart attack and death, and suggested that studies on people should be halted.
A large study offers the strongest evidence yet that a diet the government recommends for lowering blood pressure can save people from heart attack and stroke
Brian Connell felt the first pains of a heart attack while shoveling snow a year ago. But he was only 38, so he shrugged it off.
How's your cholesterol? Here's a guess: If you're healthy, you probably have no idea. New surveys show women tend to be clueless about their risks of heart disease, especially when it comes to managing their cholesterol.
Anger, depression and stress can all raise the risk of heart disease -- but a new study shows that chronic anxiety may be even more harmful
Jeopardy host Alex Trebek was hospitalized Tuesday after suffering a minor heart attack.
Merck & Co. announced Friday that it will pay $4.85 billion to settle as claims by as many as 47,000 groups of plaintiffs over injuries linked to its blockbuster Vioxx painkiller.
Eli Lilly revealed positive findings from a late-stage trial of its experimental heart drug prasugrel, but a side effect might prevent it from becoming the potential blockbuster that the company had hoped.
Studies show that chronic stress contributes to heart attacks and other disease, and researchers think it's time to make stress reduction a medical priority
David Beckham flew back to the U.K. Thursday after his father, Ted Beckham, suffered a heart attack.
Actos and Avandia have entered the spotlight again, as studies published in a leading medical journal pit the two diabetes drugs against each other by comparing their cardiovascular risks.
U.S. regulators said Thursday they are reviewing new safety data on AstraZeneca Plc's heartburn drugs Nexium and Prilosec, but a preliminary analysis does not suggest they increase the risk of heart problems.
Food and Drug Administration panelists voted Monday that GlaxoSmithKline's diabetes drug Avandia should remain on the market, despite an analysis showing links to increased risk of heart attack.
GlaxoSmithKline Plc's widely used diabetes drug Avandia should be pulled off the market, Food and Drug Administration reviewer David Graham said in a presentation prepared for delivery Monday.
GlaxoSmithKline is getting ready for a face-to-face with the FDA about its diabetes drug Avandia, which has been on the hot seat since a study blamed the drug for increasing the risk of heart attack.
While being fat increases your chances of a heart attack, some studies suggest a puzzling paradox: Obese people seem have a better chance of surviving one
Debate over the heart attack risk associated with the GlaxoSmithKline diabetes drug Avandia took center stage Monday at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association.
With concerns raised about heart risks of a popular diabetes drug, GlaxoSmithKline and the FDA scramble to respond
The recently published study results that link GlaxoSmithKline's blockbuster diabetes drug Avandia to heart attacks could shift market share to rivals Merck, Lilly and Amylin, despite questions surrounding the data, analysts say.
Novartis pulled its irritable bowel syndrome drug Zelnorm off the U.S. market at the FDA's request because of a possible stroke risk to patients, the company said Friday.
An FDA advisory committee will be taking a hard look this week at drug-coated stents, which the agency approved back in 2003 to prevent the arteries from re-closing better than non-drug stents.
Unexpected controversy at the American Heart Association conference over test results of a failed experimental drug pits an independent researcher against a massive drug company and its biotech partner.
Merck & Co. said Monday that its arthritis painkiller Arcoxia does not increase the risk of heart attacks, in a study underscoring the difference between this drug and its withdrawn-from-the-market blockbuster Vioxx.
Novartis plans to bring a new arthritis painkiller to the U.S. market, but analysts say its similarity to the disgraced drug Vioxx could kill its chances of becoming a billion-dollar blockbuster.
Merck was found negligent in the latest Vioxx case, as a jury in New Orleans federal court found that the drugmaker misrepresented the risks of the arthritis painkiller and awarded the plaintiff more than $50 million in damages.
Merck holds the lead in the ongoing legal war against Vioxx plaintiffs, with five wins and three losses, and experts say it's cheaper for the company to keep paying defense lawyers than to buy off plaintiffs in a mass settlement.
Merck was found not liable in the seventh lawsuit over Vioxx, the arthritis painkiller that it pulled from the market because of heart attack risk, the company announced Thursday.
The latest lawsuit against Merck over its market-pulled painkiller Vioxx debuts this week in a California courtroom, while the drug giant continues to defend itself in a separate trial in New Jersey.
Merck, the no. 2 drugmaker in America, said on Tuesday that it made a correction to the study that led to the withdrawal of its arthritis painkiller Vioxx, but that it didn't change the results of the study.
Merck is just weeks away from its next trial over the former blockbuster drug Vioxx, and lawyers from both sides have fresh fodder for the courtroom battle.
Merck is denying news reports that suggest new data from the drug maker indicates Vioxx increased heart attack risks earlier than previously reported and that the risk for stroke persisted long after the patient stopped taking the drug.
Merck announced that Vioxx patients did not suffer an increased risk of heart attacks from blood clots after they stopped taking the drug, though the company said it would not change its legal strategy regarding the withdrawn painkiller.
A Canadian study involving thousands of Vioxx patients concluded they faced the highest risk of heart attack during the first few weeks of taking Merck's arthritis painkiller.
Merck's defense of Vioxx is beginning to look ugly - and costing the company millions in legal fees and punitive damages. But make no mistake, the company's fight-every-case strategy is still its only rational option.
A jury in a Texas border town found the drug maker Merck liable Friday in the death of a former Vioxx patient.
A New Jersey jury found Merck liable Tuesday of misrepresenting Vioxx to federal regulators, and ordered the drugmaker to pay $9 million in punitive damages to a man who suffered a heart attack after taking the painkiller.
Merck stock tumbled Thursday, a day after the nation's No. 2 drugmaker was found liable for the heart attack of a New Jersey man who took Vioxx and a jury awarded $4.5 million in damages.
Merck & Co. was held liable Wednesday by a New Jersey jury in the heart attack of a 77-year-old man who took the painkiller Vioxx, but not in the one suffered by a 60-year-old plaintiff.
Merck & Co. wrapped up its defense in the latest Vioxx product liability trial on Thursday with testimony from a psychiatrist who said one of the plaintiffs who blames the painkiller for his heart attack never mentioned taking it when discussing his medical history.
The "lower is better" cholesterol story has been around for decades, but this week researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that a lifetime of low cholesterol looks like a superior way to avoid heart disease.
Lots of heart
A lawyer for Slobodan Milosevic has denied news reports that the former leader of Yugoslavia altered his medication to discredit medical care at a Dutch detention center and be allowed to seek treatment in Russia.
Preliminary autopsy results indicate that former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic died of a heart attack, a spokeswoman for the U.N. war crimes tribunal said Sunday.
Mark Lanier, the only lawyer so far to defeat Merck in a Vioxx-related lawsuit, will face off with the drug maker again, but this time Merck has the home field in New Jersey and Lanier will be representing a heart attack survivor, not a widow.
Merck's got three victories and only one loss under its belt in the ongoing Vioxx litigation battle, but the upcoming cases could get a lot tougher.
The fellow hunter who was shot and wounded by Vice President Dick Cheney has suffered a minor heart attack after a piece of birdshot migrated to his heart, a hospital spokesman said Tuesday.
The Garza family faces off against Merck this week in a Texas border town, in the fourth lawsuit to blame Vioxx, the market-pulled painkiller, for causing heart attacks.
A federal judge declared a mistrial Monday in the latest lawsuit against Merck concerning its painkiller Vioxx, attorneys for both the plaintiff and drugmaker said.
A report from a prestigious medical journal that Merck withheld information about the dangers of Vioxx could lead to new trials both in a federal case currently before the jury and in a state case won by the drug company.
Jury selection began in Houston on Tuesday in the latest high-stakes legal battle for Merck ... and its first in a federal courtroom.
Merck is returning to Texas next week, where it lost its first Vioxx lawsuit in a state court, to fight its third case - now in a federal court - a legal battleground that could be more receptive to the company, say legal experts.
DALLAS (CNN/Money) - Merck's Vioxx, Pfizer's Celebrex and similar painkillers increase the risk of death among patients who have already survived a previous heart attack, especially when taken in high doses, according to data released Sunday at the American Heart Association conference here.
The good, the bad and the silly
The Icelandic biotech DeCode Genetics said Thursday it has identified a genetic trait that causes heart attacks, particularly in blacks, and is developing a drug to combat it.
More than a symptom
Mark Lanier, the Houston lawyer who won the first Vioxx lawsuit against Merck in August, said he will make a request in New Jersey Superior Court on Monday to represent the first of some 20,000 plaintiffs.
Merck & Co. was found not liable by a New Jersey jury Thursday in the second Vioxx trial -- a key victory for the troubled drugmaker as it faces thousands of other lawsuits over the painkiller.
Merck maintains its defense for Vioxx, the beleaguered painkiller that was pulled off the market in 2004 and has been blamed for heart attacks in a growing tally of lawsuits, a top company lawyer said Monday.
The "art" of medicine -- a term that doctors often fall back on when the "science" of medicine is open to interpretation -- was illustrated by studies in the leading medical journals this week.
News from the heart
Merck's lawyers attacked potentially damaging testimony from a medical examiner in the first Vioxx lawsuit and filed a motion Thursday to prevent her from testifying before jurors in a Texas courtroom.
Braniacs rule
Critical time
The Food and Drug Administration issued a warning to users of the over-the-counter pain reliever naproxen Monday after federal researchers found an increased number of heart attacks and strokes among users.
THE DUSTY FLATLANDS of the Texas panhandle seem a world away from society's great debate about human stem cells. But if you want to see how stem cells could transform medicine, a ranch near Dalhart...
Vice President Dick Cheney's history of heart problems started in 1978, when he suffered his first of four heart attacks at the age of 37.
Internal Merck & Co. e-mails and marketing materials show the drugmaker fought forcefully for years to keep safety concerns from destroying the sales of big-selling painkiller Vioxx, according to a published report.
Listening to Ray Gilmartin, you can't help but be struck by how matter-of-fact and calm the man seems. The 63-year-old Merck chairman and CEO is soft-spoken, quick with a smile, and unfailingly pol...
Former President Clinton will undergo heart bypass surgery as early as Saturday, sources said. Clinton, 58, was undergoing tests for chest discomfort Friday at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
The widow of low-carb diet guru Dr. Robert Atkins said Monday that she was "outraged" at charges her husband was obese at the time of his death and denied his heart problems had anything to do with the protein-heavy diet he espoused.
Heart disease is the leading killer of both genders in the United States, but until now, women had to rely on prevention and treatment guidelines based on research on men.
Helping kick off American Heart Month, first lady Laura Bush began campaigning Monday to raise awareness about heart disease among women.
Actuaries, not economists, are the truly dismal scientists. Consider some actuarial projections about the graying America of 2050: One in 26 of us will have Alzheimer's disease, compared with one i...
One night in the spring of 1993, University of Texas cardiologist Ward Casscells stayed up late, lighting matches and burning the skin on his inner left arm. Earlier that evening he'd been tending ...
The symptoms of a heart attack aren't necessarily obvious. People talk of chest pain, but it's usually pressure or a squeezing sensation. This is called angina, and it occurs when blood flow in one...
You'd think Mr. Cholesterol would have been routed in the past decade. Studies paint an ever starker picture of the danger posed by fatty deposits in the bloodstream. Anti-cholesterol "statins" lik...
Don't try telling Ira Lipman to relax. The success of Guardsmark, the private, $400-million-a-year corporate-security firm he built from scratch, hinges on the vigilance he has cultivated in himsel...
Before Dwight Eisenhower, men's heart attacks were marked by whispered rumors and hidden recoveries. Before Norman Schwarzkopf and Andy Grove, prostate cancer was borne in silence and shame. Until ...
To judge from the recent flurry of stories linking the impotence drug Viagra to heart attacks, you'd think some dark agent of death had come among us. But it's actually surprising that more Viagra-...
Last summer William Daiger could have dropped dead. Or he could have joined those who become permanently impaired when a heart attack destroys a significant part of the body's precious pump. But Da...
I'LL NEVER GET a heart attack. Not me. Maybe that pasty-faced guy in sales who always looks so tired. And that blimp-in-a-suit who ate all the French fries at lunch today and had pie for dessert. H...
WOULDN'T IT BE NICE if all medical advice about life-and-death matters like heart disease were based on clear, unambiguous scientific evidence? But it's not. That disagreeable fact has left million...
THEY MAKE your lip curl when you see them in the elevators at the office: those gaunt, humorless guys with gym bags who run a few dozen miles during their lunch hour before breezing through 400-pou...
NOT BAD FOR a company that began life a dozen years ago when a scientist and a young MBA put up $500 apiece: Genentech Inc. now has nine low-slung, crowded buildings on breezy Point San Bruno, whic...
BY NOW MANY health-conscious Americans can readily reel off the four main risk factors commonly associated with heart disease: a high cholesterol level, a diet heavy in saturated fats, high blood p...
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