The drugmaker encouraged its sales team to accentuate the positive about the painkiller and minimize discussion of potential heart risks.

In the wake of Congressional hearings, pharmaceutical company Merck’s sales force was shown to have aggressively marketed Vioxx to doctors, even as evidence grew showing an increase in heart attack risks in patients.

One confidential 2001 Merck memo told its sales team not to bring up the heart risk with doctors.

Merck offered bonuses of up to $2,000 for meeting sales goals, and provided the sales force with data showing how Vioxx could be safer than other anti-inflammatories.

An April 2000 memo to the sales force offered guidance on overcoming physician objections, and was released just as data about heart-related issues started coming to Merck.

Merck, however, has been instrumental in performing studies showing the potential cardiovascular risks. Its own study became the impetus for voluntarily removing Vioxx from the market.

“We believed wholeheartedly in the safety of Vioxx and that Vioxx was an important treatment option,” said Merck Vice President Dennis Erb. “My own father was a regular user of Vioxx until we voluntarily withdrew it from the market.”

A Congressman on the House Government Reform Committee questioned why doctors kept on writing Vioxx prescriptions. “Why did doctors write so many Vioxx prescriptions even as evidence of harm mounted?” asked Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA).

But the committee chairman, Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) noted that Merck had made public results of its own studies, and wondered why more doctors had not heeded those results as published in the media and in medical journals.

David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.