King would be so proud

From a WP article on the congressional investigation into Merck's deceptive marketing of Vioxx:

Merck and other drug companies say their "detailers" act as neutral educators to guide physicians in prescribing drugs, but the more than 20,000 pages of documents released yesterday showed that Merck's representatives were coached to be aggressive salesmen.

They were trained how to smile, speak and position themselves most effectively when talking with doctors, and were exhorted to sell Vioxx and other Merck drugs using the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) read from a Merck training manual that directed instructors to play a recording of the speech and then say to the sales force: "King was someone with goal-focus -- he kept getting shut down but kept going. . . . Just as with a physician, you must keep repeating the compelling message and at some point, the physician will be 'free at last' when he or she prescribes the Merck drug, if that is most appropriate for the patient."

FDA scientist David Graham estimates as many as 55,000 people died of Vioxx-related heart attacks -- that's more people than die in a year from auto accidents, breast cancer or AIDS.

Merck even produced a document called "Vioxx Dodge Ball" which explicitly instructed its reps how to "dodge" questions for physicians about the health risks of Vioxx. It's available at saferdrugsnow.org.