Report: FDA Study Faults Merck's Vioxx

Updated from 8:23 a.m. EDT

An unreleased Food and Drug Administration study reportedly concludes that Merck's (MRK Quote) recently recalled arthritis drug Vioxx may have been responsible for more than 27,000 heart attacks and sudden cardiac deaths in recent years.

An FDA study covering the time of Vioxx's approval in 1999 through 2003 concluded that the health episodes could have been avoided if patients had instead used rival Pfizer's (PFE Quote) Celebrex drug, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Word of the study, which covered some 66,000 patients who had used one or the other drug, comes a week after Merck's stunning decision to voluntarily withdraw its No. 2 drug over heart safety concerns, a move that knocked 27% off the drugmaker's share price in one day. ...