Johnson & Johnson's Scios unit has reported that drug investigators failed to report the deaths of two patients taking the controversial heart failure medication Natrecor during a study of the drug. The trial investigators had reported five deaths of patients taking Natrecor within a thirty-day trial period in 2001 and early 2002. The company did not say how the deaths were omitted but said that including the additional deaths would not have changed the safety profile of the drug. The disclosure comes as Merck has been forced to explain why negative safety data for Vioxx had been withheld from published study results.
- read this report from The New York Times for more