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“Seeding trials” are clinical studies that appear to answer a scientific question but whose main purpose is marketing of a drug. Researchers, who were paid to be consultants for plaintiffs, reviewed confidential documents that were made public as a result of litigation against Merck. The specific case involved a study in which rofecoxib (Vioxx) was compared with naproxen for the stated purpose of evaluating gastrointestinal tolerability; study results were published in a peer-reviewed journal (Ann Intern Med 2003; 139:539).
Merck internal communications revealed that their marketing division had conceived the clinical trial, with the goal of encouraging physicians to gain experience with rofecoxib prior to and during its critical launch phas…