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Previous Volume 353:2813-2814 December 29, 2005 Number 26 Next

PDF PDA Full Text Editorial by Curfman, G. D. Letters Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited E-mail When Letters Appear PubMed Citation

We have recently obtained information regarding inaccuracies in data in the report of the VIGOR (Vioxx Gastrointestinal Outcomes Research) study by Bombardier et al.¹ that raise concern about certain conclusions in the article.

The VIGOR study was designed primarily to compare gastrointestinal events in patients with rheumatoid arthritis randomly assigned to treatment with rofecoxib (Vioxx) or naproxen (Naprosyn), but data on cardiovascular events were also monitored. Three myocardial infarctions, all in the rofecoxib group, were not included in the data submitted to the Journal. The editors first became aware of the additional myocardial infarctions in 2001 when updated data were made public by the Food and Drug Administration.

Until the end of November 2005, we believed that these were late events that were not known to the authors in time to be included in the article published in the Journal on November 23, 2000. It now appears, however, from a memorandum dated July 5, 2000, that was obtained by subpoena in the Vioxx litigation and made available to the Journal, that at least two of the authors knew about the three additional myocardial infarctions at least two weeks before the authors submitted the first of two revisions and 4 1/2 months before publication of the article. Given this memorandum, it appears that there was ample time to include the data on these three additional infarctions in the article.

The fact that these three myocardial infarctions were not included made certain calculations and conclusions in the article incorrect. Although only summary percentages, not actual numbers of myocardial infarctions, were included in the Journal article, the following tables display the numerical data without (Table 1) and with (Table 2) the three myocardial infarctions.

View this table: [in this window] [in a new window]   Table 1. Data on Myocardial Infarctions Omitting the Three Events.

 

View this table: [in this window] [in a new window]   Table 2. Data on Myocardial Infarctions Including the Three Events.

 
Lack of inclusion of the three events resulted in an understatement of the difference in risk of myocardial infarction between the rofecoxib and naproxen groups (presented in the article as a reduction in the risk with naproxen but shown here as an increase in the risk with rofecoxib). It also resulted in the misleading conclusion that there was a difference in the risk of myocardial infarction between the aspirin indicated and aspirin not indicated groups.

In addition, the memorandum of July 5, 2000, contained other data on cardiovascular adverse events that we believe would have been relevant to the article. We determined from a computer diskette that some of these data were deleted from the VIGOR manuscript two days before it was initially submitted to the Journal on May 18, 2000.

Taken together, these inaccuracies and deletions call into question the integrity of the data on adverse cardiovascular events in this article. We have asked the authors to submit a correction to the Journal.

Source Information

This editorial was published on December 8, 2005, at www.nejm.org.

References

1. Bombardier C, Laine L, Reicin A, et al. Comparison of upper gastrointestinal toxicity of rofecoxib and naproxen in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. N Engl J Med 2000;343:1520-1528. [Free Full Text]

PDF PDA Full Text Editorial by Curfman, G. D. Letters Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited E-mail When Letters Appear PubMed Citation

Related Letters:

Response to Expression of Concern Regarding VIGOR Study
Bombardier C., Laine L., Burgos-Vargas R., Davis B., Day R., Ferraz M. B., Hawkey C. J., Hochberg M. C., Kvien T. K., Schnitzer T. J., Weaver A., Reicin A., Shapiro D.
Extract | Full Text | PDF  
N Engl J Med 2006; 354:1196-1199, Mar 16, 2006; published at www.nejm.org on Feb 22, 2006 (10.1056/NEJMc066096). Correspondence

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