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Merck's Deleted Data

Posted by Zonk on from the shouldn't-have-used-office dept.

An anonymous reader wrote to mention a Forbes article describing a drug study tampering proven by software. From the article: "A top editor of The New England Journal of Medicine says that he was stunned to find out that data linking Vioxx to cardiovascular risk was deleted from a major study his journal published five years ago--and that it appears that Merck researchers may have deleted that data ... When you hover the cursor over the editing changes, the identity of the editor pops up, and it just says 'Merck'"

18 of 200 comments (clear)

  1. Nothing for you to see here. Please move along. by NastyNate · · Score: 5, Funny

    It looks like Merck deleted this submission.

    1. Re:Nothing for you to see here. Please move along. by technoextreme · · Score: 4, Funny
      An entire multi-national corporation brought down by Microsoft's TrackChanges feature...

      Im sure a large group of people on slashdot would also like to see Microsoft be brought down by their TrackChanges feature also. This is a horribly bad joke and I doubt anyone is going to find it funny....
      --
      Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
    2. Re:Nothing for you to see here. Please move along. by A+nonymous+Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      (A similar thing happened at Intel years ago, but I don't think it lead to very many heart attacks.)

      Actually, my Pentium tells me there were .00010183 heart attacks, but I think it's estimating.

      --
      Infuriate left and right
  2. They deleted the slashot page too! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I got a 404 error when clicking on the 'Read more...' link. Damned multinationals!

  3. See! by DrEldarion · · Score: 4, Funny

    And you guys said that this feature was bad! They're just looking out for us, bless their hearts!

  4. They must have forgot... by OakDragon · · Score: 4, Funny

    The researchers must have forgotten to slide the little "write protect" tab on the diskette.

    --
    Dark Reflection
  5. Viability of Testimony by mrshoe · · Score: 5, Funny


    The researchers still aren't sure whether Clippy's testimony will hold up in court.
    .

    --
    There are two types of people in this world: those that categorize other people and those that don't.
    1. Re:Viability of Testimony by hunterx11 · · Score: 4, Funny

      It appears that you are writing an amicus curiae brief. Are you sure you don't really want to use Word Perfect?

      --
      English is easier said than done.
  6. A win for animal rights.... by joe+155 · · Score: 5, Funny

    they are now testing on humans...

    --
    *''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
  7. Re:drugs is money by Philip+K+Dickhead · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hey, man. This is the self correcting market, with it's free hand at work! Stop complaining, and sorry all you dead heart-attack guys.

    --
    "Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
  8. The Merck knows. Oh it knows. by Japong · · Score: 2, Funny

    "At 3:00 P.M. today, Curfman and two other editors released an editorial on The New England Journal's Web site entitled "Expression of Concern," which calls on the VIGOR authors to submit a correction of the 2000 manuscript. "Taken together, these inaccuracies and deletions call into question the integrity of the data on adverse cardiovascular events in this article," it read. "

    The editorial, however, is also strangely missing. In its place was a message: "Silly Scientists - morality is for kids! Love, Merck."

  9. obligatory by GungaDan · · Score: 3, Funny

    $sys$data_unfavorable_to_merck

    --
    Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
  10. Cardiovascular problems? by Zarhan · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well, I'm glad that the issues has finally come to light. I heard someone else suspected something along these lines before, but he became Fugitive when he murdered his wife.

  11. Contrast that with the Viagra makers studies by LM741N · · Score: 3, Funny

    In related news the makers of Viagra were saying that their studies posted on the internet were "standing up" really well.

  12. oh no! by legalize.ganja.now. · · Score: 3, Funny

    they should have deleted lore instead!

  13. Hello chunews, by GroeFaZ · · Score: 5, Funny
    it looks like you're trying to make a joke. Would you like to...

    • insert a punchline?
    • copy a (Score:5, Funny) comment from another thread?
    --
    The grass is always greener on the other side of the light cone.
  14. Re:Yet another reason to use OO.o by MsGeek · · Score: 3, Funny

    Open Office is great for "fixing" broken Word documents. Macro virus? Corruption? No problem! Save as Oasis,then save back as .DOC. Problem solved. I'm sure Open Office can also "fix" version tracking as well.

    Only goes to show you that it pays to use F/OSS.

    --
    Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
  15. Clippy by mymaxx · · Score: 5, Funny

    It looks like you are writing a drug study document. Would you like help deleting data?