The problem with the study, Diet Soft Drink Consumption is Associated with an Increased Risk of Vascular Events in the Northern Manhattan Study ( Gardner et al., Journal of General Internal Medicine) is that the numbers are low enough to leave us uncertain as to whether diet drinks were the cause or simply correlated with other factors that led to these events.
The New England Journal of Medicine released internal Merck memos indicating that Merck knew more about cardiovascular problems caused by Vioxx than it revealed when it published a giant study of the drug in 2000.
Designing internal controls and accounting strategies, approving journal entries, and giving final signoff on technical accounting treatments is a clear breach of independence for an external auditor.
During the deposition, which also included attorneys for the drugmaker, they showed Curfman an internal Merck document dated July 5, 2000--after the VIGOR manuscript was submitted to the journal, but well before the study went to press.