Dr. David Graham in 2004: FDA is incapable of protecting US “against another Vioxx.”

This is one of the most remarkable statements ever given in front of a Senate Committee. Please take 12 minutes and listen closely to what to what is said and then realize that things are much worse now, 20 years later, if you can believe it.

Dr. David Graham is an American epidemiologist who played a critical role in highlighting the risks associated with the painkiller drug Vioxx (rofecoxib), marketed by Merck & Co. In the end the drug would be recalled but not until an estimated 60K people had died from taking it. It was the biggest pharmaceutical company scandal ever at the time in 2004.

My name is David Graham, and I am pleased to come before you today to speak about Vioxx, heart attacks and the FDA. By way of introduction, I graduated from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and trained in Internal Medicine at Yale and in adult Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania. After this, I completed a three-year fellowship in
pharmacoepidemiology and a Masters in Public Health at Johns Hopkins, with a concentration in epidemiology and biostatistics. Over my 20 year career in the field, all of it at FDA, I have served in a variety of capacities. I am currently the Associate Director for Science and Medicine in FDA’s Office of Drug Safety.
https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/111804dgtest.pdf