[Cz-biology] Merck proposal

[Gareth Leng]

Re Merck proposal


I favour this idea strongly, as the Merck manual is an authoratative  
source of the kind of dense detailed pharmacological and chemical  
information that it is impractical to source extensive original  
references for.

I should declare an interest; I have long had colaborative links with  
Merck and Co., and they have had a very long reputation as the epitome  
of an ethical pharmaceutical company.

This was challenged certainly by the Vioxx affair. I'm not going to go  
into that here, but frankly in my view the idea that Merck behaved  
deliberately unethically is not sustainable, if only because it was  
inevitable that side effects if real would be recognised eventually,  
and so it was very much in their commercial interests to warn of them  
at the very earliest time to minimise the inevitable lawsuits. So far,  
courts have endorsed that view.

Gareth Leng
Professor of Experimental Physiology
Centre for Integrative Physiology
School of Biomedical Sciences
University of Edinburgh College of Medicine and Veterinary Sciences
Hugh Robson Building
George Square
Edinburgh EH8 9XD UK

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